Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Twelve men, all ac­cused of be­ing in­volved in or­gan­ised crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, have been or­dered de­tained at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre un­der the lat­est de­ten­tion or­ders gazetted by the State.

Ac­cord­ing to the or­ders, the men are ac­cused of be­ing af­fil­i­at­ed with gangs linked to firearms and nar­cotics traf­fick­ing, home in­va­sions, kid­nap­pings and re­tal­ia­to­ry killings.

The men in­clude Amal Charles, Christo­pher Ralph, Ke­ston Joseph, Je­re­my Ray­mond, Jevon Williams and Je­re­mi­ah Cum­ber­batch, all from the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion.

Charles is al­leged to be an en­forcer for a To­ba­go-linked or­gan­ised crime group, while Ralph and Joseph are ac­cused of be­ing mem­bers of the Rat­ed G gang.

Ray­mond was iden­ti­fied as an al­leged leader of an un­named OCG, while Williams and Cum­ber­batch were de­scribed as al­leged look­outs, in­tel­li­gence gath­er­ers and en­forcers for a gang.

In east Trinidad, the men named in the de­ten­tion or­ders were Shaquille David, Malique Nero, Rondy Reuben, Ar­i­on Lea­cock and Josi­ah Jude-James Fuller.

Reuben, Lea­cock and Fuller, all of Va­len­cia, were iden­ti­fied in the or­ders as al­leged mem­bers of a Mus­lim gang with links to Cara­po. Nero was de­scribed as a “key fig­ure” in the La Re­treat gang.

David, of La Hor­quet­ta, is al­leged to be a mem­ber of an or­gan­ised crime group in­volved in rob­beries, ex­tor­tion and kid­nap­pings, and is ac­cused of plot­ting to mur­der a wit­ness.

In To­ba­go, Ian Thomas of Lam­beau was al­leged­ly linked to a re­cent pub­lic shoot­ing and is be­lieved by in­ves­ti­ga­tors to have ac­cess to high-ve­loc­i­ty firearms and am­mu­ni­tion, with plans for mul­ti­ple at­tacks.

The de­ten­tion or­ders stat­ed that the men were be­ing held to pre­vent an es­ca­la­tion of re­tal­ia­to­ry gang vi­o­lence, cit­ing in­tel­li­gence re­ports that mul­ti­ple at­tacks were im­mi­nent and co­or­di­nat­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to the or­ders, the al­leged or­gan­ised crime group mem­bers are be­lieved to have ac­cess to caches of high-pow­ered firearms and am­mu­ni­tion and to be en­gaged in on­go­ing crim­i­nal en­ter­pris­es, in­clud­ing nar­cotics and arms traf­fick­ing, home in­va­sions and tar­get­ed killings.