Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:14 hours 39 min ago
Senior cop vows to halt illegal quarrying
Published: 21 Sep 2009
Head of Eastern Division police, Snr Supt Margaret Sampson-Browne, makes a point at her office at Sangre Grande Police Station. Photo: KARLA RAMOO
Illegal quarrying in east Trinidad has grown from a festering sore into a cancerous mass, suffocating legitimate businessmen, who in many instances, are being forced to pay hefty protection tax. In other cases, also revealed by head of Eastern Division, Senior Supt Margaret Sampson-Browne, legal businessmen were also pressured into “delivering” truckloads of gravel to illegal quarries, in exchange for the “safeguard” of their vehicles. Many of the illegal quarries, the senior cop added, operated under a host of “ghost companies” to elude detection. Declaring that she was “hell-bent” on shutting down illegal quarries which had “taken over” the rural eastern town, Sampson-Browne has also declared “war” on errant police officers who may be involved in illegal quarrying.
In an interview at Sangre Grande Police Station, Sampson-Browne said a special squad of Eastern Division police, working closely with the Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU) and the Anti-Corruption Bureau, had implemented measures to “drastically reduce” illegal quarrying by the end of the year. “We are relentlessly collecting data, and by the end of the year there will be a significant decrease in illegal quarrying in Eastern Division, if not before,” Sampson-Browne said. Among the team of officers were Insps Phillip, Ramai, Joseph, Roy and Sgt Beverly Paul. Sampson-Browne, who assumed office last February, said she had “inherited” the problem of illegal quarrying. “Illegal quarrying is a thorn in our sides at Eastern Division. There are people doing legal quarrying, and very next to that is illegal quarrying.” She said because of the sensitivity of information police were gathering, there had been hasty attempts to “cover up” by those involved.
“It may appear there has been an increase in illegal quarrying. “We are getting a wider perspective how illegal quarries operate: the times they are operating, the vehicles they use and the companies they allegedly operate under,” Sampson-Browne said. Part of the strategy of law enforcement officers, the senior cop said, depended heavily on surveillance methods and information-gathering, which would then lead to arrests. “We have the names of people who are said to be extorting money from legal businessmen,” Sampson-Browne said. Among the information gathered, she added, were names of police officers reportedly linked to illegal quarrying. “I am not going to hold a candle for anybody. There are names of police officers we are aware of and we are addressing that situation,” Sampson-Browne assured. She declined to answer if any of the implicated officers were assigned to Eastern Division.
Vowing to be “relentless” in weeding out rogue cops,” Sampson-Browne said the landscape had been “hideously scared” by the daily ripping away of large chunks of earth. “I hate a dishonest person. I more so hate a dishonest police officer, because they are not trained to protect and serve persons who are doing wrong things, and illegal quarrying is one of them. “When you take a view of Valencia, there are huge lakes of water where the earth once was, and that has resulted in severe flooding,” Sampson-Browne said. To effectively eradicate the scourge of illegal quarrying, however, Sampson-Browne called on the community to work hand-in-hand with the police. “We cannot bring a closure to illegal quarrying. It has to be an exchange of strength.
“It has to be a show of force by the police and supportive strength by the community,” Sampson-Browne said. Alleviating fears that information passed on to the police would be treated in strict confidence, Sampson-Browne said her officers were willing to “march into hell for a heavenly cause. “We have been hearing of people giving information, and that information comes back to them by the same persons who they give information about. “But we are going to see tangible responses because we are working on the ground and under the ground to bring some measure of relief, because everybody is supposed to exist in an environment that is safe, whether real or perceived.”
Oh God, more promises from
Oh God, more promises from the dunceys.
Why can't they just do the damn job without jumping into the news? The after come tell us: "This is what we DID".
Jumbie's Watch
It's years now we have been
It's years now we have been hearing about illegal quarrying, so I'm not holding my breath in anticipation of any real action.
Why hold your breath when
Why hold your breath when you only have to "whine whine whine whine"...."jump jump jump". That is why we are the way we are...a society on a collision course with Haiti, Burma and the Congo.
Ordo Ab Chao
To the poster that implied
To the poster that implied that Magaret Sampson Browne is a "duncey", you really don't know this relentless law enforcement officer.
Twoleft I don't think that
Twoleft I don't think that poster was actually singling out Magaret Sampson Browne as being a duncey, but rather the Police Service as a whole. A view held by many!
This relentless police
This relentless police officer effectiveness can best be measured if she shows up at the quarrying site with a few police cars (if the have any), demand to see the documents authorizing the quarrying and if the culprits cannot produce the documents then she should make appropriate arrest. Getting behind the podium and giving a speech to the media about what you going to do has an effectiveness of zero meters.
Illegal Quarrying,
Illegal Quarrying, particularly in Valencia is another sign of the lawlessness that is stalking the land. How can we be a law abiding society when the PNM Government is itself lawless and it is butressed by a lawless Police service? Our lawlessness and the breakdown of our society stems from a lack of understanding of how to structure a society. Law, Order, Justice, enlightenment, respect for private property, human rights are all ingredients that a society should have.
No one can claim to be educated if they have not studied the great philosophers of the West - Thomas Hobbes, John Stuart-Mill, Rousseau, Jeremy Bentham, Spinzoa, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant and of course the Greeks - Plato / Aristotle and Socrates. Anyone aspiring for high public office in this country should have studied the philosophers.
Alas we are a society of fools and that is why we are the way we are. People who read are laughed at and scorned. No one reads beyond school. Its easier to whine like a dog on a bumsee in T&T.
Ordo Ab Chao
Wasn't the
Wasn't the Jamaat/Untouchables implicated in all this illegal quarrying? Knowing that our police is practically afraid of this group, Sampson-Browne better lower her ambitions before she lands herself a state funeral.
Terran What you worrying
Terran
What you worrying yourself for? This is sweet T&T...dont worry man ...whine on a bumsee and jump and wave.
Ordo Ab Chao
Sayeth The Pilgrim The
Sayeth The Pilgrim
The Guardian would do well to recall the series of special investigations it conducted several years ago on the illegal quarrying being carried out by the Jamaat in Valencia. They continue to actively quarry on the 30 acres of land ceded to them when Patrick Manning was forced to rescind his promise to grant them the Mucarapo lands in exchange for Muslimeen support in the 2002 elections - the Valencia lands formed part of the 'other arrangements' he declared would be made in reward for their thuggery. Those Guardian investigations exposed several things:
- that the Jamaat was operating an illegal quarry, with armed men preventing anyone - including police - from entering the premises to observe what was going on;
- that the principal 'client' for the quarried aggregate was none other than the Ministry of Works and Transport (photos were taken of MWT trucks going and coming);
- that the estimated income - all tax-free - from the quarry operations was in the order of $60 Million per annum;
- that no license to operate a quarry had ever been issued to the operators (and has yet to be).
The resulting hue and cry led to the police attempting to close the operations down. What followed were the Port of Spain bombings, and the declaration by Patrick Manning that he knew who 'Mr. Big' was. Rumour from within the PNM had it that Manning had been warned not to interfere with the quarry, or blood would flow. He ignored that threat, with the resulting series of terrorist bombings as warnings of what would follow. When he backed off, the bombings - as yet unsolved - ceased, and 'Mr. Big' faded into the shadows.
What followed thereafter is nothing short of astonishing: all the frenzy in the government about curbing illegal quarrying instead led to the declaration that quarries under 150 acres would no longer need a license to operate. And the issue promptly died. Yet questions linger which no one in the media has yet to ask or answer properly:
- in the wake of Abu Bakr's affidavit that AG Jeremie so desperately wants buried to protect his boss, why has the question of Manning's very public declaration about having to make 'other arrangements' with the Jamaat not been raised?
- why has no one made the connection between the Muslimeen operating a quarry, and the legal aquisition and use of explosives to do so (with all the concomitant questions that go along with what else the Muslimeen could do with explosives other than blast rocks naturally coming into question)?
- why has no one connected the dots between Manning in 2002 appointing Bilaal Abdullah (Bakr's lieutenant and the real architect of the 1990 coup attempt) as Special Advisor to the then Minister of Energy, and the fact that quarries fall under what used to be called the Ministry of Energy and Mines, now simply the Ministry of Energy?
- why has no one asked if there is any truth to the persistent rumour that Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, who in 2002 was Minister of Social Development (and under whom fell in part the Muslimeen-run URP, who in turn got quarried materials from the MWT for road repairs etc.), is in fact Bilaal Abdullah's brother-in-law?
- if this last is proven, why has no one asked how it is that a person linked to a terrorist group that forcibly tried to overthrow the duly elected Government of Trinidad & Tobago, became a sitting member of the Cabinet?
- why has no one inquired about the resulting interconnected web all resulting in the Jamaat becoming the recipient of State funds: for the sale of illegally quarried aggregate to the MWT, and to their employees in the URP for using same, with oversight from both within the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Social Development (and I will not touch on the involvement of former Minister Joan Yuille-Williams, whose 'special relationship' with Yasin Abu Bakr caused her to be the intermediary between Bakr and Manning, and later between Manning and the 'community leaders' from Muslimeen-controlled areas in Laventille);
- why has no one asked why it is now that Bakr's affadavit is suddenly being forced into the open, that the Manning administration suddenly wants to shut down quarrying again after they already declared that any such operation under 150 acres no longer needs a license? Is it quid pro quo? And will we now expect to see a repeat of the PoS bombings all over again?
So much to ask, so much to add... Where is our 'Guardian of Democracy' when we most need it...?
Very interesting commentary
Very interesting commentary Pilgrim, we'll wait and see how this issue pans out.
You should be working for
You should be working for tranparency international in Trinidad...:)
Well need people of your ability to find the "holes" where these corrupt people are hiding.
Very interesting post as someone mentioned earlier!!!
Pilgrim, leh we hope is ah
Pilgrim, leh we hope is ah false name or alias you using here! I agree that citizens should express their thoughts freely and fearlessly, but please tread carefully. It have some illiterate and fanatical fellas out there in that said organization who probably kill for less than a dollar already. Author Salman Rushdie still hides from a fatwah put out on his head. You are not Salman Rushdie and I'm not advocating this for you and hope nothing like this ever comes to pass. All this said without prejudice. Nevertheless, a good, solid blog.
ajfyzabadbutlertown
Sayeth The Pilgrim AJ in
Sayeth The Pilgrim
AJ in Fyzabad,
thanks for the concern, Brother - your caveat is most appreciated. However there are some of us who feel we have now become Strangers in our own home, and thus have nothing more to risk or to lose.
It is also worth noting that these blogs are being monitored with interest around the world. My humble contribution to this story has already turned up in another Blog (see http://jyoticommunication.blogspot.com/2009/09/reader-fingers-muslimeen-...). If only the Guardian would follow up on the leads I purposefully feed them from time to time in these posts, maybe the risks run would be well worth it.
Oh for the good old days when we had the 'Patriot Underground' exposing Manning's dirty laundry, but that died along with Selwyn Richardson, so now its up to us to do what we can in whatever way we can...
...there is substantial
...there is substantial truth and proof extant, in what you say about the 'other arrangements'......
...Oh gawd Maggie, stop the
...Oh gawd Maggie, stop the murders and mayhem among living things first nah, before moving on to sand and gravel.....