OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Joint po­lice and army pa­trols have start­ed in com­mer­cial dis­tricts in Ch­agua­nas to stem the rise in ex­tor­tion.

Busi­ness­men in the bor­ough as well as in Cunu­pia and Cou­va have com­plained that their lives and the lives of their loved ones were be­ing threat­ened by crim­i­nals de­mand­ing mon­ey.

They said the de­mands of­ten range from as much as $30,000 a month. The new an­ti-crime strat­e­gy was rolled out along the Ch­agua­nas Main Road, with De­fence Force sol­diers and TTPS of­fi­cers mak­ing their rounds through the area.

The strat­e­gy fol­lowed mul­ti­ple meet­ings with stake­hold­ers in Cen­tral Trinidad, in­clud­ing four ses­sions with the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of Com­merce and In­dus­try.

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Kei­th Scot­land, while be­ing tight-lipped about the de­tails of the plan, said the pa­trols would in­volve both day and night op­er­a­tions and would con­tin­ue in­to the first few months of 2025, in the first in­stance.

“We will be con­cen­trat­ing on spe­cif­ic ar­eas, such as En­deav­our, Freeport, Cunu­pia, and Ed­in­burgh 500, where these is­sues are preva­lent, and you will no­tice an in­creased po­lice pres­ence,” Scot­land said.

He added, “It’s a strate­gic plan, and while I can’t re­veal all the de­tails, we are con­sol­i­dat­ing re­sources to en­sure this strat­e­gy is ef­fec­tive­ly ex­e­cut­ed across Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Scot­land stat­ed that the ini­tia­tive is al­so be­ing rolled out in var­i­ous city cen­tres like Port-of-Spain, Ch­agua­nas, and San Fer­nan­do. Scot­land said the pa­trols were on­ly one mea­sure in the ar­se­nal of plans to com­bat ex­tor­tion.

“When was the last time some­one re­ceived 15 years for de­mand­ing by men­ace? That’s what we’re deal­ing with here—it’s not just ex­tor­tion; it’s an old form of com­mon law theft,” he ex­plained. “We ful­ly in­tend to make strong sub­mis­sions be­fore ju­di­cial of­fi­cers. Ul­ti­mate­ly, the de­ci­sion rests with the judge, of course, but our stance will be clear. At the ini­tial stage, such as bail ap­pli­ca­tions, we will take a firm po­si­tion, es­pe­cial­ly with re­peat of­fend­ers, and en­sure it is pre­sent­ed to the dis­trict judge or mas­ter. Re­gard­ing sen­tenc­ing, if con­vict­ed, our fo­cus will be on ad­vo­cat­ing for puni­tive and de­ter­rent mea­sures, en­sur­ing the con­se­quences are im­pact­ful,” Scot­land stressed.

How­ev­er, the pa­trols are not on­ly aimed at pre­vent­ing ex­tor­tion. Sol­diers and po­lice of­fi­cers will al­so be on pa­trol to com­bat rob­beries, home in­va­sions, and oth­er crimes.

Di­rec­tor of the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, Kevin Ram­goolie, said busi­ness­men are hope­ful they would see an ease in cas­es of ex­tor­tion.

“We are work­ing with con­fi­dence and ful­ly com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing the suc­cess of this ini­tia­tive,” he said.

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Richard Smith, head of the An­ti-Ex­tor­tion Unit, said one new re­port of ex­tor­tion was re­ceived by of­fi­cers, tak­ing the num­ber of re­ports to 29.

He again ap­pealed to vic­tims to come for­ward. “Let’s dis­cuss the re­ports of ex­tor­tion. So far, we have 29 re­ports on record, and in one of our in­ves­ti­ga­tions, we charged an in­di­vid­ual with 22 of­fences stem­ming from these re­ports,” Smith said.

“If re­ports aren’t made, we can’t an­tic­i­pate what peo­ple are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing. We need the pub­lic to come for­ward—that’s why we es­tab­lished this unit,” he stressed.

Any­one wish­ing to make a re­port can call 797-3150.