JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Sev­en al­leged gang­sters, in­clud­ing a gang leader, were or­dered to be de­tained at two fa­cil­i­ties in Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders gazetted yes­ter­day.

The or­ders al­leged that the men were mem­bers of gangs iden­ti­fied as 9 Gang, Grim 7, Ras­ta City/Sev­en, 7 Gang (Sea Lots) and an in­for­mal gang.

Ac­cord­ing to the de­ten­tion or­ders, three of the men are mem­bers of the 9 Gang. Jo­evon “Hol­low Man” Williams was iden­ti­fied as the leader of the 9 Gang. He is ac­cused of re­cruit­ing young males in­to gang ac­tiv­i­ty and be­ing in­volved in drug dis­tri­b­u­tion, armed rob­beries, shoot­ings tar­get­ing ri­vals, wit­ness in­tim­i­da­tion, with in­tel­li­gence al­leg­ing that he plans to es­ca­late at­tacks us­ing firearms in pub­lic spaces. He was or­dered de­tained at Gold­en Grove Prison, Arou­ca.

Amir Gorkin, an al­leged en­forcer with the 9 Gang, was or­dered de­tained at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre (ECRC), as in­tel­li­gence claims he planned es­ca­lat­ing vi­o­lent gang at­tacks and mir­rored the ac­cu­sa­tions made against Williams.

The third 9 Gang mem­ber was Rova­lo “Val­do” Ed­in­bor­ough, who was iden­ti­fied as a nar­cotics dis­trib­u­tor who is de­tained at the ECRC. Apart from in­tel­li­gence claim­ing he was prepar­ing for “im­mi­nent es­ca­la­tion of vi­o­lence,” Ed­in­bor­ough is al­so ac­cused of drug traf­fick­ing, armed rob­beries, shoot­ings and wit­ness in­tim­i­da­tion.

On­ly Randy “Chi­nee” Youk-See was iden­ti­fied as a mem­ber of the Grim 7 gang. Youk-See was iden­ti­fied as an al­leged sec­ond in com­mand, who is sup­pos­ed­ly re­spon­si­ble for co­or­di­nat­ing vi­o­lent op­er­a­tions, dis­trib­ut­ing nar­cotics, firearms and stolen ve­hi­cles, prepar­ing mem­bers for lethal at­tacks on ri­vals and was per­son­al­ly linked to op­er­a­tional readi­ness of gang vi­o­lence. He, too, was or­dered to be de­tained at the ECRC.

Den­nis Sta­ple­ton was iden­ti­fied as a mem­ber of the Ras­ta City/Sev­en gang and or­dered to be de­tained at Gold­en Grove. He is ac­cused of ex­tor­tion, drug traf­fick­ing, tar­get­ed shoot­ings and vi­o­lent in­tim­i­da­tion, with in­tel­li­gence agen­cies fur­ther ac­cus­ing him of hav­ing ac­cess to high-pow­ered firearms and planned re­tal­ia­to­ry shoot­ings in pub­lic spaces.

Abra­ham Lett was iden­ti­fied as a mem­ber of the 7 Gang and is al­leged to be in­volved in drug traf­fick­ing, firearm dis­tri­b­u­tion and armed rob­beries linked to a gang en­gaged in mur­ders and in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal gang con­flicts.

The fi­nal al­leged gang­ster is Shane Ali, who is ac­cused of be­ing an ac­tive par­tic­i­pant in a gang in­volved in house­break­ing, rob­beries, armed home in­va­sions and drug and firearm traf­fick­ing. In­tel­li­gence ac­cused Ali of be­ing linked to wit­ness in­tim­i­da­tion, shoot­ings and part of a group es­ca­lat­ing vi­o­lent break-ins and at­tacks in pub­lic spaces, as well as in­ter­nal con­flict lead­ing to re­tal­ia­to­ry vi­o­lence.