Po­lice holds traf­fic ex­er­cise

Thir­ty-nine peo­ple were ar­rest­ed in San­gre Grande and Beetham Gar­dens yes­ter­day. In the first ex­er­cise, which be­gan around 10 am and end­ed four hours lat­er, po­lice con­duct­ed a drag­net along the Beetham High­way in Port-of-Spain. Dur­ing the ex­er­cise, which was co-or­di­nat­ed by Se­nior Supt?Wayne Boyd of the Port-of-Spain CID, sev­en peo­ple were ar­rest­ed as po­lice im­pound­ed sev­en stolen ve­hi­cles.

Yes­ter­day's road­block caused ma­jor con­ges­tion for com­muters com­ing in­to Port-of-Spain, with traf­fic back­ing up to the Grand Bazaar in­ter­sec­tion of the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way for sev­er­al hours. Po­lice sources said al­though the ex­er­cise might have in­con­ve­nienced dri­vers, it was a use­ful tool to catch delin­quent dri­vers with faulty ve­hi­cles.

Sim­i­lar ex­er­cis­es are ex­pect­ed to be done in the weeks lead­ing up to Christ­mas. The ex­er­cise was led by ASP Ajith Per­sad and in­clud­ed Cpl John and PC Hol­man. Mean­while, in a sep­a­rate ex­er­cise in San­gre Grande, po­lice ar­rest­ed 32 peo­ple for out­stand­ing war­rants. That ex­er­cise was led by ACP Wayne Dick and Se­nior Supt Dyanand Naipaul.