Five men have been placed un­der pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion or­ders over a four-day pe­ri­od, as the State con­tin­ues to in­voke pro­vi­sions of the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2026, to dis­rupt gang ac­tiv­i­ty and vi­o­lent crime.

The or­ders, is­sued be­tween March 15 and March 18, tar­get­ed in­di­vid­u­als al­leged­ly in­volved in or­gan­ised crim­i­nal groups op­er­at­ing across north, Port-of-Spain and south Trinidad.

On March 15, a de­ten­tion or­der was is­sued for Shaquille “Jobe” Quamie Jobe, of La Hor­quet­ta. Au­thor­i­ties al­leged he “has been cred­i­bly iden­ti­fied as a mem­ber of the La Hor­quet­ta Phase 7 Mus­lim gang” and that he and oth­ers “have re­cent­ly ex­e­cut­ed a se­ries of se­ri­ous firearm-re­lat­ed vi­o­lent in­ci­dents.” The or­der fur­ther claimed they “plan to im­mi­nent­ly car­ry out reprisal shoot­ings against gang ri­vals us­ing high-pow­ered firearms.”

The fol­low­ing day, March 16, an or­der was is­sued for Levi “Ya­coob” Pan­tor, of Up­per Dun­can Street, Port-of-Spain.

On March 17, Jaquan Jones, al­so known as “Lashup Sixx,” of East Dry Riv­er, Port-of-Spain, was de­tained. The or­der de­scribed him as “an ac­tive and op­er­a­tional mem­ber of the ‘Sixx Gang’” who “func­tions as an en­forcer with­in the gang, par­tic­i­pat­ing in vi­o­lent crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty in­clud­ing armed rob­beries, shoot­ings and firearm-re­lat­ed of­fences.” It added that he is in­volved in “planned and re­tal­ia­to­ry firearm at­tacks in pub­lic places which pose a se­ri­ous and im­mi­nent risk of vi­o­lence to the pub­lic”.

Two fur­ther or­ders were is­sued on March 18 for Key­on “Knowl­edge” Ab­dool and Michael “Young Duck” Lutch­man, both of Gow­ers Well Road, Fyz­abad. Both men were iden­ti­fied as mem­bers of the Del­hi Road Gang, with au­thor­i­ties al­leg­ing they were re­spon­si­ble for “stash­ing and se­cur­ing the OCG’s firearms,” which “are to be used to car­ry out im­mi­nent at­tacks and re­tal­ia­to­ry shoot­ings be­tween ri­val gangs in pub­lic spaces.”

The or­ders form part of a broad­er ef­fort to tar­get dif­fer­ent lay­ers of gang op­er­a­tions, in­clud­ing al­leged shoot­ers, en­forcers and those re­spon­si­ble for stor­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing weapons.

All five men are to be held at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre in San­ta Rosa, Ari­ma.