Ak­ile Si­mon

Hard times back home caused a 32-year-old Guyanese for­mer po­lice­man to come to this coun­try, in or­der to make a liv­ing. The for­mer cop was one of 12 per­sons ar­rest­ed by of­fi­cers of the North-East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force dur­ing an ex­er­cise in San­ta Cruz and San Juan in the heavy rains on Fri­day af­ter­noon.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, the sus­pect was ar­rest­ed sit­ting on a wall near Bourg Mu­la­tresse Sec­ondary School. He al­leged­ly had 29 grams of co­caine in one of his pock­ets. When ques­tioned by po­lice, the sus­pect told of­fi­cers he left the Guyana Po­lice Force two years ago, be­cause he was fear­ful for his life.

"If dem boy ah know dat you ah po­lice, them ah lick shot at you," the man told the of­fi­cers. He added that af­ter leav­ing the force, things got so hard that he de­cid­ed to come to Trinidad.

"Boss, ah just col­lect dat thing to ah car­ry for ah man; you know. Gimme ah lil chance nah. It re­al hard in Guyana; you know, boss," the man told of­fi­cers af­ter he was ar­rest­ed. He was charged with pos­ses­sion of co­caine for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing, since the al­leged of­fence oc­curred with­in 500 yards of a school. At Pan­cho Lane, the of­fi­cers board­ed a house and held a 31-year-old man cut­ting up a ki­lo of com­pressed mar­i­jua­na, in prepa­ra­tion for the streets. Of­fi­cers said they re­ceived in­for­ma­tion and ex­e­cut­ed a search war­rant at the man's home, where they found him in the liv­ing room, al­leged­ly with the drug.

Mean­while, on Fifth Street, San Juan, of­fi­cers ar­rest­ed three Bel­mont men who they be­lieve may have been re­spon­si­ble for a spate for rob­beries in the Croisee. Of­fi­cers said the sus­pects were held sell­ing what ap­peared to be gold and sil­ver chains and oth­er items be­lieved to have been tak­en from pedes­tri­ans dur­ing "snatch and run and pick­pock­et­ing." Of­fi­cers al­so de­tained a man they be­lieved may have been re­spon­si­ble for rob­bing sev­er­al per­sons at San Juan Re­pub­lic Bank's ATM.