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Wednesday, July 9, 2025

DCP Suzette Martin under investigation over Brent Thomas arrest

by

Shane Superville
16 days ago
20250623
Deputy Commissioner of police Suzette Martin

Deputy Commissioner of police Suzette Martin

ABRAHAM DIAZ

Shane Su­perville 

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin is un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion, months af­ter lead­ing an in­quiry in­to al­leged crim­i­nal con­duct by for­mer Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher.

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro con­firmed the in­ves­ti­ga­tion at a me­dia brief­ing on Mon­day at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Sackville Street, Port of Spain.

He said the al­le­ga­tions were linked to Mar­tin’s in­volve­ment in the 2022 ar­rest of firearms deal­er and train­er Brent Thomas in Bar­ba­dos.

Thomas, 61, was de­tained while await­ing a flight to the Unit­ed States and lat­er charged with three counts of pos­ses­sion of firearms and four counts of pos­ses­sion of ex­plo­sives.

Ac­cord­ing to a TTPS me­dia re­lease, the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to Mar­tin be­gan af­ter Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau of­fi­cers con­duct­ed an au­dit at the busi­ness of a firearms deal­er in Aranguez. They said they dis­cov­ered sev­er­al ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties and lat­er searched the deal­er’s home, where they found four ex­plo­sive de­vices and three pro­hib­it­ed firearms.

In April 2023, High Court judge Devin­dra Ram­per­sad ruled that Thomas’ ar­rest—car­ried out by of­fi­cers led by Mar­tin—amount­ed to an “ab­duc­tion.” The then At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour lat­er is­sued an apol­o­gy to Bar­ba­di­an au­thor­i­ties.

When asked to de­tail the al­le­ga­tions against Mar­tin, Gue­var­ro said: “The firearm deal­er would have in­di­cat­ed cer­tain acts were car­ried out against him and he felt this was bor­der­ing on crim­i­nal con­duct.

“I would not want to pro­nounce on ex­act­ly what is that crim­i­nal con­duct be­cause an in­ves­ti­ga­tion is un­der­way and we will be cer­tain that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion when com­plet­ed will un­cov­er what­ev­er crim­i­nal con­duct ex­ists.”

He said the TTPS re­mained com­mit­ted to its man­date de­spite re­cent con­tro­ver­sy in­volv­ing its lead­er­ship.

Gue­var­ro added that the de­ci­sion to pub­licly con­firm the probe in­to Mar­tin showed the ser­vice’s com­mit­ment to trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty.

Mar­tin re­mains in her po­si­tion as Deputy Com­mis­sion­er with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for in­tel­li­gence and in­ves­ti­ga­tions. She has not been sus­pend­ed.

Asked whether keep­ing her in the post could af­fect the in­tegri­ty of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, Gue­var­ro ex­pressed con­fi­dence in the team led by ACP Curt Si­mon.

“I have every trust and faith in the in­ves­tiga­tive team that they will be able to un­cov­er any mis­giv­ings that would have oc­curred or, I should say, lend to the mis­be­lief that mis­giv­ings will oc­cur,” he said.

On­ly the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion has the au­thor­i­ty to sus­pend of­fi­cers, Gue­var­ro added.


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