RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Top lev­el po­lice of­fi­cers met in an emer­gency ses­sion yes­ter­day to dis­cuss strate­gies to deal with the mass mi­gra­tion of crim­i­nal gangs from Laven­tille, Mor­vant and Port-of-Spain. The gangs have been set­ting up bases in sev­er­al parts of Cen­tral and South Trinidad.

Some gang mem­bers are cur­rent­ly liv­ing in Freeport, Cou­va, Cunu­pia, Ch­agua­nas, Point Fortin, San­ta Flo­ra, Erin, Moru­ga, Clax­ton Bay and Mara­bel­la, the T&T Guardian was re­li­ably in­formed.

South­ern Di­vi­sion Se­nior Supt Zamsheed Mo­hammed said the po­lice have de­vel­oped strate­gies to deal with the mass mi­gra­tion but re­fused to di­vulge any more de­tails. Asked whether the po­lice had mapped out the pos­si­ble hide­outs of the gangs, Mo­hammed said this in­for­ma­tion was sen­si­tive and could not be pub­li­cised. How­ev­er, he called on the pub­lic to as­sist the po­lice in lo­cat­ing the gang­sters.

“We are call­ing on the pub­lic to re­port any stranger they see in their com­mu­ni­ty. If you see some­one who is act­ing sus­pi­cious­ly or be­hav­ing in a man­ner that rais­es ques­tions, then you can call the po­lice to in­ves­ti­gate. You can make the calls anony­mous­ly to the po­lice or to CrimeStop­pers at 800-TIPS and the po­lice will act on it,” Mo­hammed said.

He added that home in­va­sions and oth­er crimes could al­so be pre­vent­ed if the com­mu­ni­ty worked with the po­lice in re­port­ing in­ci­dents. He said strange ve­hi­cles could be re­port­ed as well.

In the Cen­tral and South­ern re­gions, po­lice of­fi­cers have al­so set up po­lice com­mu­ni­ty coun­cils to as­sist in re­al-time re­port­ing of a crime.

A source at the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion said yes­ter­day that they had set up so­cial me­dia groups so that peo­ple can share in­for­ma­tion in re­al time.

“This has been suc­cess­ful in the search for stolen ve­hi­cles and has re­sult­ed in us re­cov­er­ing stolen ve­hi­cles on a time­ly ba­sis,” the of­fi­cer said.

He not­ed that many of the gang­sters are al­so mov­ing in­to un­oc­cu­pied homes and are min­gling in the com­mu­ni­ties.

Yes­ter­day, the pub­lic was still pro­cess­ing the in­for­ma­tion about the crim­i­nal mi­gra­tion, re­port­ed ex­clu­sive­ly in the T&T Guardian, and won­der­ing whether the po­lice would be able to stop it.

Cou­va res­i­dent Pree­tam Gun­ness said more need­ed to be done in the crime fight. He said in­stead of al­low­ing the crim­i­nal gangs to mi­grate, po­lice should be­gin ar­rest­ing the of­fend­ers. How­ev­er, he not­ed there was al­so a lev­el of dis­trust be­tween cit­i­zens and the po­lice which made pro­vid­ing in­for­ma­tion prob­lem­at­ic.

“Peo­ple know who are the gang lead­ers and they are be­ing seen with politi­cians and se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers. They are pro­tect­ed, so why should peo­ple feel safe to call the po­lice to re­port any­thing?” Gun­ness said.

Kyle Ains­ley said his rel­a­tives were re­cent­ly beat­en and chopped dur­ing a home in­va­sion and were con­sid­er­ing mi­gra­tion.

“Even though the An­ti-Gang leg­is­la­tion has been passed we are not see­ing a dent in crime. It is very wor­ry­ing,” Ains­ley said.

On Wednes­day, Cen­tral Di­vi­sion head Se­nior Sup In­raj Bal­ram said it was dur­ing the in­ter­ro­ga­tion of a “hard­ened crim­i­nal” on Wednes­day that the po­lice fi­nal­ly learned that gangs were mov­ing in droves to cen­tral. He said the gang­sters were al­so try­ing to take over a par­cel of land in Cou­va to con­duct their op­er­a­tions.

Al­so con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Cou­va South MP Rudy In­dars­ingh says the mi­gra­tion of crim­i­nal gangs to Cen­tral and South Trinidad is noth­ing new.

“In the con­stituen­cy of Cou­va South it is a known fact that crim­i­nals have been mi­grat­ing in and out for the last two and a half years. That is why there have been mur­ders in Bal­main, Cal­cut­ta, Cal­i­for­nia and Pt Lisas just to name a few and rob­beries and home in­va­sions in every nook and cran­ny of the con­stituen­cy,” In­dars­ingh said in a tele­phone in­ter­view.

“That is the very said rea­son why I have been con­sis­tent­ly call­ing for joint po­lice/army pa­trols in Cou­va and Cen­tral Trinidad. It is al­so sad that in spite of the Gov­ern­ment boast­ing of cam­eras be­ing in­stalled we still do not know how many cam­eras are work­ing and what is the true worth of as­sist­ing the po­lice is solv­ing and re­duc­ing the crime epi­dem­ic which has tak­en over Cen­tral Trinidad.”

He called Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Ed­mund Dil­lon and the Min­is­ters to come on the ground in Cen­tral Trinidad to get first-hand knowl­edge of the ter­ror, trau­ma and pain the law-abid­ing cit­i­zens are en­coun­ter­ing.