Twen­ty-two Venezue­lans were de­tained by of­fi­cers of the Ce­dros and Erin Po­lice Sta­tion for il­le­gal en­try in­to Trinidad.

The TTPS said they were held dur­ing an ex­er­cise con­duct­ed yes­ter­day, Mon­day 27 No­vem­ber, 2023.

Dur­ing the ex­er­cise, po­lice pro­ceed­ed to Erin Beach, where up­on ar­rival they met mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard (TTCG) led by Sub Lieu­tenant Di­az and mem­bers of the Cus­toms and Ex­cise led by Richie Roop­nar­ine, Cus­tom Of­fi­cer II who hand­ed over the said im­mi­grants who were ar­rest­ed af­ter their ves­sel was in­ter­cept­ed along the coast­line of the Erin Beach front. It was re­port­ed that oth­er im­mi­grants ran in­to some near­by bush­es.

The po­lice par­ty along with mem­bers of the TTCG and Cus­toms and Ex­cise then pro­ceed­ed ap­prox­i­mate­ly 400 feet off the Buenos Ayres main road, where the oth­ers were de­tained. A to­tal of eleven males and eleven fe­males were de­tained, sev­en of which were mi­nors.

They were all tak­en to the Erin and Ce­dros po­lice sta­tion for safe­keep­ing pend­ing fur­ther en­quiries for il­le­gal en­try.

The ex­er­cise was ex­e­cut­ed by PCs Collins, Gop­ual and WPC Down­ing.