In the com­ing days, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty will launch an in­tel­li­gence-dri­ven op­er­a­tion to take down the crim­i­nal el­e­ments and pro­vide safe­ty to law-abid­ing cit­i­zens.

This was the word from Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at his Port-of-Spain of­fice yes­ter­day, as he warned cit­i­zens that they in­tend to make a “hard push back” against crim­i­nals which would re­sult in in­con­ve­niences at undis­closed ar­eas across the coun­try. The ex­er­cis­es will be spear­head­ed by mem­bers of the TT Po­lice Ser­vice, T&T De­fence Force and oth­er agen­cies.

Young in­sist­ed that this strike back against the crim­i­nals will not in­volve a lim­it­ed state of emer­gency in crime hot spot ar­eas but will see “in­creased in­tel­li­gence-dri­ven op­er­a­tions” to bring those who seem to be un­touch­able down.

Young said they have in­tel­li­gence on why cer­tain ac­tiv­i­ties have been tak­ing place in re­cent times. With­in the last few weeks, Sea Lots, East Port-of-Spain, Care­nage and En­ter­prise have been plagued by gang and gun vi­o­lence. He de­scribed Sea Lots as be­ing out of con­trol with its re­cent up­surge in gun vi­o­lence.

Young ad­mit­ted that a small group of crim­i­nals have been con­duct­ing il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties which the Gov­ern­ment was con­cerned about. With the cur­rent mur­der rate at 67, he said they opt­ed to roll out their an­ti-crime op­er­a­tions, where crim­i­nals will face a hard-line ap­proach while a new type of polic­ing will be in­tro­duced.

“In­tel­li­gence has been gath­ered for a num­ber of months for the prepa­ra­tion of cer­tain op­er­a­tions. When these op­er­a­tions are launched there is go­ing to be a lev­el of in­con­ve­nience, un­for­tu­nate­ly to the law-abid­ing cit­i­zens, in par­tic­u­lar ar­eas,” he said.

He warned that the Gov­ern­ment will not pro­tect any­one.

“I cer­tain­ly am not afraid of no crim­i­nal el­e­ment in T&T...nor will I be in­tim­i­dat­ed. The Gov­ern­ment is not go­ing to sit back and let things con­tin­ue as it has been,” a tough-talk­ing Young said.

“Un­less we take this stand now ... un­less we change now ... take back our coun­try now and the stars are align­ing in my view...it will on­ly get worst. We can­not al­low the crim­i­nal el­e­ments to get more em­bold­ened. The on­ly way to push back at the crim­i­nal el­e­ments is for us to change the nar­ra­tive. It is time we dic­tate the pace and we go on the of­fen­sive.”

Yes­ter­day, Young met with heads of se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies and af­ter­wards promised that they will utilise the State’s re­sources to “beat crim­i­nals in­to sub­mis­sion.”

Un­der the An­ti-Gang leg­is­la­tion, Young said charges can be laid against gang mem­bers and lead­ers and “search­es of places deal­ing with gangs... de­ten­tion of per­sons deal­ing with per­sons who are re­lat­ed to gang ac­tiv­i­ties” will take place.

If any gang mem­ber or leader threat­ens or en­cour­ages some­one to join a gang, Young said they can be charged, as he re­mind­ed the TTPS to use this as a vi­tal tool in the cur­rent crime-fight­ing op­er­a­tion. At a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee in­to the TT Po­lice Ser­vice last month, it was re­vealed that on­ly sev­en peo­ple have so far been charged un­der the leg­is­la­tion.