The Fi­nan­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Branch (FIB) of the Po­lice Ser­vice has ob­tained an or­der from the court to forefeit $99,900 which was seized from a su­pect­ed drug deal­er who has since been shot dead.

The or­der was grant­ed on Jan­u­ary 14, 2021 by Chief Mag­is­trate

Maria Bus­by-Ear­le-Cad­dle at the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates’ Court.

A re­lease from the Po­lice Ser­vice said a cash for­fei­ture in­ves­ti­ga­tion be­gan on Sep­tem­ber 13, 2018, af­ter $99,900 was seized from Ja­son Sankar by the FIB.

Sankar, 20, of Stel­la Street, La Ro­maine and Ster­lin Walk­er were among a group of men play­ing cards at a house at Red Brick Trace, South Oropouche on No­vem­ber 3, 2020.

Gun­men am­bushed the group and fired sev­er­al shots. Sankar was hit. He died on the way to hos­pi­tal. Walk­er was hos­pi­talised.

The cash was seized pur­suant to the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act Chap­ter 11:27.

On Sep­tem­ber, 14, 2018, a Cash De­ten­tion Or­der was grant­ed by Chief Mag­is­trate Bus­by Earl -Cad­dle at the Port- of- Spain Mag­is­trates' Court for a pe­ri­od of three months.

This or­der was grant­ed to al­low for con­tin­ued in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the le­git­i­ma­cy of the source of the funds, or its in­tend­ed use.

On Sep­tem­ber 17, , 2018 the $99,900.00 was de­posit­ed

in­to the Trea­sury by virtue of Sec­tion 38 (5) of the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act.

Po­lice Con­sta­ble James, of the FIB, con­duct­ed en­quires, in­ter­viewed

peo­ple, made re­quests to sev­er­al State agen­cies, re­ceived re­spons­es and sub­mit­ted a file with his find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions.

The Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tion (DPP) was en­gaged and ad­vice sought.

On Au­gust 7, 2019 an ap­pli­ca­tion for for­fei­ture of the seized cash

was laid at the Port- of- Spain Mag­is­trates’ Court.

On No­vem­ber 3, 2020 Sankar was shot mul­ti­ple times and died as a re­sult and gun­shot wounds.

On Thurs­day, the for­fei­ture ap­pli­ca­tion was heard by Earl- Cad­dle via vir­tu­al hear­ing in the same court.

The State was rep­re­sent­ed by State at­tor­ney Kadisha Sinanan, of the Of­fice of the DPP.

Dur­ing the hear­ing at­tor­ney Chris­ton Williams, who rep­re­sent­ed the

in­ter­est of Sankar, with­drew his ser­vices.

The Chief Mag­is­trate even­tu­al­ly or­dered the for­fei­ture of the $99,900.00 in ac­cor­dance with the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act.