DEREK ACHONG

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

The Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (POA) has com­mend­ed some of its mem­bers for as­sist­ing in ex­pos­ing a col­league, who has been charged with al­leged­ly smug­gling con­tra­band, in­clud­ing co­caine, in­to the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison (MSP) in Arou­ca.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day to re­spond to a press re­lease is­sued by the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) out­lin­ing the of­fi­cer’s ar­rest, POA pres­i­dent Ger­ard Gor­don thanked un­named mem­bers of his or­gan­i­sa­tion for stand­ing up against their col­league’s al­leged il­lic­it ac­tiv­i­ties.

Gor­don said, “We ap­plaud the ef­forts of prison of­fi­cers who are ac­tive­ly in­volved in get­ting rid of of­fi­cers who would want to breach the rules and reg­u­la­tions.”

Gor­don said the as­so­ci­a­tion had a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach to the traf­fick­ing of con­tra­band by its mem­bers, as such ac­tiv­i­ty brought the T&T Prison Ser­vice and its hard-work­ing mem­bers in­to dis­re­pute.

“The T&T Prison Ser­vice is one of the few or­gan­i­sa­tions that is ac­tive­ly in­volved, every day, in try­ing to rid it­self of of­fi­cers who con­tin­ue to do this il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty,” he said.

Ac­cord­ing to a press re­lease, the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the 28-year-old prison of­fi­cer from Williamsville com­menced af­ter po­lice re­ceived a tip-off on his al­leged ne­far­i­ous ac­tiv­i­ty on May 20.

The of­fi­cer was de­tained af­ter pre­lim­i­nary en­quiries but was re­leased pend­ing fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Last Wednes­day, po­lice of­fi­cers, led by act­ing ASP Ash­ley Mon­groo, ex­e­cut­ed a search war­rant at the of­fi­cer’s home, but noth­ing il­le­gal was found.

Two days lat­er, in­ves­ti­ga­tors con­sult­ed with the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP), which ad­vised that he be slapped with three charges.

The of­fi­cer was charged with two mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice charges re­lat­ed to the traf­fick­ing of co­caine in­to the prison for pay­ment and bring­ing cell phones, SIM cards, and charg­ers in­to the prison.

He was al­so charged with drug traf­fick­ing.

The of­fi­cer, who was not iden­ti­fied in the re­lease, was sched­uled to make his first court ap­pear­ance be­fore a High Court Mas­ter yes­ter­day.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion was co­or­di­nat­ed by Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) Suzette Mar­tin and sup­port­ed by Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er Car­los Cor­raspe. It in­volved po­lice of­fi­cers from sev­er­al spe­cialised units, in­clud­ing the Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tion De­part­ment (CID) and the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit (SIU).