44 undocumented immigrants detained in Princes Town exercise

Forty-four un­doc­u­ment­ed im­mi­grants were de­tained dur­ing an an­ti-crime ex­er­cise by the South­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force on Sun­day.

The ex­er­cise took place be­tween 6 pm and 11:30 pm at a premis­es in Mal­gretoute Vil­lage, Princes Town. Po­lice said the lo­ca­tion was be­ing used for gam­bling, in­clud­ing cock­fight­ing.

Of­fi­cers en­tered the build­ing and in­di­vid­u­als at­tempt­ed to flee. Po­lice said some per­sons jumped from the sec­ond floor. Of­fi­cers de­tained sev­er­al in­di­vid­u­als, in­clud­ing the 44 for­eign na­tion­als. They are be­ing held pend­ing im­mi­gra­tion en­quiries.

Po­lice al­so de­tained 50 Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als dur­ing the ex­er­cise. Of­fi­cers ver­i­fied their doc­u­ments and they were re­leased.

One male for­eign na­tion­al was in­jured while at­tempt­ing to es­cape. Po­lice said he is ward­ed un­der guard at a hos­pi­tal. He is as­sist­ing of­fi­cers with in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to pos­ses­sion of forged doc­u­ments.

The ex­er­cise was co­or­di­nat­ed by se­nior of­fi­cers of the South­ern Di­vi­sion. Units in­volved in­clud­ed the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Task Force and the Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment.

Po­lice said the op­er­a­tion forms part of on­go­ing ef­forts to ad­dress il­le­gal im­mi­gra­tion and re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice stat­ed that it con­tin­ues to work with state agen­cies on these mat­ters.

Mem­bers of the pub­lic are asked to re­port sus­pi­cious ac­tiv­i­ty to the po­lice.