AMSTERDAM: Southern Division police believe they have dented a major drug operation in south Trinidad with the arrest of a 27-year-old US deportee and seizure of four high-powered weapons and over $1.7 million in drugs.
After weeks of monitoring the suspect, who was described as a distributor, a team, led by ASP Ali Mohammed, Insp Don Gajadhar and Sgt Dale Ramroop, went to search the suspect’s Hermitage Village home on Tuesday. On entering the house, they allegedly caught the suspect mixing pure cocaine with baking powder in two aluminium pots on a stove.
Police said the cocaine weighed 3.96 kilogrammes and had an estimated street value of $1.6 million. They also seized a bag of marijuana worth approximately $100,000. In another room, officers found an AK-47 assault rifle with two magazines, a Taurus 9mm revolver, a Belgian FN Herstal pistol and a .357 revolver.
In a display at the Police Adminstration Building, San Fernando, yesterday, Gajadhar said the AK-47 rifle is commonly used by militants in war-torn Middle Eastern countries, while one of the pistols was fully automatic and is used by the US Secret Service and FBI.
He said the display was to show the public what police are up against while protecting them.
Snr Supt Irwin Hackshaw said the suspect was arrested for a series of crimes in New York and deported to T&T around 2010. He was arrested during the 2011 state of emergency under the Anti Gang Act but subsequently released.
While commending officers for living up to acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams’ mandate to increase gun seizures in 2015, Hackshaw noted that guns were continually entering the country through illegal ports.
