Of­fi­cers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) have de­stroyed 800 mar­i­jua­na trees, val­ued at some $800,000, dur­ing an an­ti-crime ex­er­cise in Rio Claro, on Mon­day 25th May 2020.

The an­ti-crime ex­er­cise was con­duct­ed in the Rio Claro dis­trict, be­tween the hours of 10:30 am and 3:30 pm. It was co­or­di­nat­ed by Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent (Ag) Aguilal and Ag In­spec­tors Sama­roo and Joseph. It was su­per­vised by Sgt Ma­habir and Ag Sgt Ma­haraj; and in­clud­ed Ag Cor­po­rals De­noon and Neaves.

Ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cial po­lice re­ports, po­lice of­fi­cers pro­ceed­ed to a camp lo­cat­ed 50 feet off the Road­way at Old Rio Claro Ma­yaro Road in Union Vil­lage, Rio Claro, where two men—63-year-old Kishore Sam­path, and 53-year-old Michael Ali—were seen cul­ti­vat­ing a mar­i­jua­na field.

The field was ap­prox­i­mate­ly two lots in size and was cul­ti­vat­ed with 800 trees. Po­lice re­port­ed­ly saw the men wa­ter­ing the grow­ing plants. Michael Ali re­port­ed­ly was in pos­ses­sion of a home­made shot­gun and six rounds of 12-gauge car­tridges.

Both men were ar­rest­ed and joint­ly charged for cul­ti­vat­ing mar­i­jua­na. Michael Ali was charged with pos­ses­sion of firearm and am­mu­ni­tion.

The mar­i­jua­na trees were val­ued at $800,000.00. The trees were up­root­ed and de­stroyed.

On the same day, of­fi­cers went to the home of Dan­ny Per­sad, of Ma­ha­bals­ing Trace in Navet Vil­lage, Rio Claro. Re­ports are that when they ar­rived, Per­sad was at the back of his house hold­ing a Mav­er­ick Moss­berg pump ac­tion shot­gun.

Po­lice al­so re­port that Raf­fi Baksh, who lives at the same ad­dress, was seen with a screw­driv­er screw­ing on a gun butt.

Po­lice searched the premis­es fur­ther and found one 12-gauge car­tridge in the shot­gun.

Both men were ar­rest­ed and joint­ly charged for the of­fences of pos­ses­sion of a firearm and am­mu­ni­tion.