Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith and senior members of the Organised Crime and Intelligence Unit are currently focusing on three alleged gang leaders and their “shooters” whose photos were leaked in a social media post yesterday.
The information accompanying the photographs labelled three individuals, two of whom are a couple from Cocorite, allegedly affiliated to the Cocorite Muslim City Gang, the Unruly Isis Gang and the John John Muslim gangs.
The leak came hours after an attempt was made on the life of businessman Dwayne King, of Waterhole, Cocorite. Gunmen ambushed and shot King several times as he was seated in traffic in his silver Tiida along the Beetham Highway on Tuesday. King remained warded in critical condition at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital last night under heavy police guard. There was also said to be a heavy police presence in and around the hospital’s compound.
Police sources told the T&T Guardian yesterday that Griffith and officers assigned to special units focused on dealing with gangs and intelligence gathering have the photographs and information “before them” doing their respective research and analysis.
The leaked information also claimed that the three alleged leaders were responsible for at least eight murders, with the victims identified and several others who were shot and wounded.
The Muslim City Gang’s victims named were: Dominic “Zebby” Gregoire, Carlos Gregoire, who was a witness to Zebby’s murder, Dwayne “Monkey” Manzano, Damien “Southie” Maingot, Sayid Callender, Kendell “DJ Cocky” Duncan, Atiba Worme and Devon “Tally” Gregoire.
“The bosses of all the Muslim City gang to date continues to provide guns and ammunition by giving orders to their shooters to send threats and open gunfire in hopes of killing all non-Muslims,” the information in the post alleged.
However, police sources believe that this information may be untrue based on the intelligence they have so far received.
“This goes a lot more deeper, information that cannot be disclosed at this time. But this is just a tip of the iceberg in terms of how serious this gang scenario is in T&T,” a senior officer said.
However, information reaching the T&T Guardian suggests that there is an internal split in one of the major gangs in Cocorite who refer themselves as the “Muslims.” The split occurred earlier this year and has led to several murders from April to September 26. Some of the gang members who fell out from the group are now turning their guns on their former colleagues for reasons unknown, the T&T Guardian was told. It is suspected that whenever a killing in the area is carried out blame is being placed on the rival gang “Rasta City,” but according to intelligence “the Muslims are warring with each other.”