Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

A 72-year-old pen­sion­er is among three fam­i­ly mem­bers ar­rest­ed dur­ing a State of Emer­gency (SoE) raid in Low­lands, To­ba­go yes­ter­day.

The po­lice op­er­a­tion—which hap­pened be­tween 9 and 11 am— un­cov­ered il­le­gal drugs, cash and mar­i­jua­na plants at the home on Lee­son George Dri­ve.

Po­lice told Guardian Me­dia of­fi­cers found 330 grams of cannabis, 19 cannabis plants, TT$14,874 and US$80 dur­ing the raid.

The op­er­a­tion was car­ried out by the To­ba­go Di­vi­sion­al Task Force West and the Ca­nine Unit af­ter weeks of sur­veil­lance.

Sources ex­plained that of­fi­cers were able to close in on the fam­i­ly with the help of the pow­ers through the de­c­la­ra­tion of the SoE.

The ar­rests in­clud­ed a self-em­ployed man, a house­wife, and the pen­sion­er, all from the same house­hold.

The op­er­a­tion was led by ACP Os­wain Subero, with co­or­di­na­tion by Snr Supt Earl Elie and sev­er­al of­fi­cers.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing.

Yes­ter­day, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher said some 49 peo­ple had so far been ar­rest­ed dur­ing SoE op­er­a­tions.

The Gov­ern­ment de­clared the SoE on De­cem­ber 30.

Ac­cord­ing to the SoE Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions 2024 (Reg­u­la­tion 8(2), per­sons found as­so­ci­at­ing with or in the com­pa­ny of some­one un­law­ful­ly pos­sess­ing firearms, am­mu­ni­tion, or ex­plo­sives, in cir­cum­stances caus­ing of­fi­cers to sus­pect there is an in­tent to cause harm or threat­ens safe­ty, com­mits an of­fence. A per­son who com­mits an of­fence un­der these reg­u­la­tions is li­able on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion to a fine of $100,000 and to im­pris­on­ment for a term of five years.