(Trinidad Express) Police yesterday swooped down on the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain and arrested two men they say are leaders of well-known criminal gangs in Sea Lots, Port of Spain.
The men, and a 26-year-old San Juan woman, who has been identified as the men’s secretary, were arrested by officers of the Port of Spain CID and the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) headed by Snr Supt Glen Hackett and John Martinez.
Guests and hotel employees looked on in shock as the three were led out of the hotel in handcuffs and into two waiting police vehicles.
Up to late yesterday, they were at the Port of Spain CID being questioned by CIU, CID and Homicide investigators. Their attorneys also quickly arrived at the CID office and spoke with them.
The men, ages 31 and 36, are said to be the leaders of the Pioneer and Production Drive Sea Lots gangs. One of the men, police said, also has an address at Third Street in Maraval.
At the time of their arrests, National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy was in a room called Regency Six of the same hotel, delivering the feature address at the Commonwealth Regulatory Workshop on “Caribbean Countries and Global Financial Regulation”.
Sandy, police sources said, was unaware of the activities taking place on the 16th and 22nd floors of the hotel, where the suspects were arrested.
Speaking at yesterday’s daily news briefing regarding operations undertaken under the state of emergency, Sandy said police had detained three known gang members, one in Tobago. He, however, did not state where the other two suspects were held.
But, when the Express questioned Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs on the arrest of the suspects at the Hyatt Regency, he said he had no knowledge of where the two men were detained, but was aware of the arrest of the third gang leader in Tobago.
He said, “I’m not sure what you are alluding to at this point. I say that because we have many operations going on throughout Trinidad and Tobago, and if there was something at the Hyatt, I have not received anything,” Gibbs said.
Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, in an earlier statement at the news briefing, said the public would be shocked to know some of the areas where police had detained gang leaders. He said yesterday’s arrest is a clear indication that they were actually going behind the big fish.
He said, “The scope and dominance of the gangs, picking upon the theme from yesterday, you would have heard from the Honourable Minister of National Security, we are not at liberty to disclose where we are picking up some of them, but I want to assure you, it is not only in Nelson Street and the Plannings. You will be shocked to know where some of them are actually housed, and the extent of the luxury in which they live.
“…I’m not at liberty to disclose the exact locations where we are penetrating and picking up the gang leaders, but, as I indicated before, we are not exactly confined to the Plannings and some of the areas where you see the media parading before the public, and it’s definitely not consistent and very difficult to reconcile the perception that we are not going after the big men, we are going after the small men,” Ramlogan said.
However, police sources yesterday confirmed they arrested the suspects at rooms 1601 and 2001 around 11.30 a.m. Police said CID officers, led by Sgts Mervyn Edwards, Andrew John Andy Wallace, and including PCs Anderson Roberts, Nikruma Porter, Rickey Babwa, Nobel Smith and WPC Claudia Cabie, raided the suspects’ hotel rooms and seized $16,000.
Officers said they also found premium drinks which included Johnny Walker Blue, Moet, Bailey’s and Harvey’s Bristol Cream. Officers also stated that the suspects, who often exchanged rooms, had initially checked in on August 23, two days after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced a state of emergency in the country.
The suspects, police said, had also checked in at the hotel in company with five women, who left on Thursday, and other women were expected to take their place yesterday. Police said they received information that the men had also been ordering food from a fine dining restaurant and had even thrown a curfew party at their rooms earlier this week.
Records from the hotel, police said, indicated that the suspects had been paying for their stay by cash on a daily basis—in excess of $900 per night. Before police moved in on the hotel, police said the suspects were spotted liming, eating, drinking and smoking in their verandah. Police said the suspects will be charged under the Anti-Gang laws and taken before a Port of Spain magistrate next week.
