RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

De­tec­tives from the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Unit and the Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau have ar­rest­ed three po­lice of­fi­cers af­ter they re­port­ed­ly robbed a drug deal­er in the south Trinidad of cash and drugs. 

One of the of­fi­cers had been un­der sur­veil­lance for quite some time.

Guardian Me­dia was told of­fi­cers from the North East­ern Di­vi­sion­al Task Force were ap­pre­hend­ed on Fri­day night in Gas­par­il­lo. 

The of­fi­cers claimed they were on a le­git­i­mate ex­er­cise. How­ev­er, when the PSB con­tact­ed their se­niors, there was no ver­i­fi­ca­tion that the NEDTF had been on any le­git­i­mate ex­er­cise.

The three men were tak­en to the Gas­par­il­lo and St Mar­garet’s Po­lice Sta­tions where they were ques­tioned sep­a­rate­ly. Two ve­hi­cles used by the of­fi­cers were im­pound­ed by the po­lice. Guardian Me­dia cap­tured footage of the ve­hi­cles as they were be­ing tak­en for fin­ger­prints at the St Mar­garet’s Po­lice.  

SORT and PSB of­fi­cers al­so seized an un­reg­is­tered mi­ni-sub-ma­chine gun.

Po­lice said one of the of­fi­cers had been charged along with a se­nior of­fi­cer for the as­sault of a San­ta Cruz man.

How­ev­er, that mat­ter was sub­se­quent­ly dis­missed at the Port of Spain Mag­is­trates Court in 2019 af­ter the pros­e­cu­tion failed to pre­pare a case.