Trinidad: 1,000 officers in nationwide raids
(Trinidad Guardian) Two days of “intense” policing saw 138 people arrested by police over the weekend.
In the exercise which started on Friday at 6 am, which saw 22 drug blocks being searched, eight guns, as well as a variety of ammunition, were seized.
Police said 13 prohibited immigrants were also detained and quantities of drugs were also seized as well as two stolen vehicles recovered, a statement from the Police Service said.
The exercise, the first roll of out of Commissioner Gary Griffith’s Operation Strike Back for 2019 started just four days after the Commissioner was hospitalised and ordered to rest.
He spearheaded the operation which took place in all nine policing divisions across the country.
He said the country required such an exercise.
“There were a number of different things we can look at to show the benefit of this operation over the last 48 hours. It showed high visibility, it was a powerful deterrent and we basically lock down the country,” said Commissioner Griffith while addressing members of the media shortly after 6 am at the St James Police Barracks yesterday.
He spoke while surrounded by senior officers of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service including Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Jayson Forde, ACP (South) Joanne Archie, Senior Superintendent (Port-of-Spain) Floris Hodge-Griffith, Senior Superintendent Michael Daniel of the Northern Division and Senior Superintendent Peter Dominque of the Western Division.
Griffith said over 1,000 officers took part in the exercise.
The Commissioner said this was a necessary statement to the criminal element of the country, while also pointing out the murder toll, which had usually been high in recent years during January, was markedly lower so far.