Twelve charged with DUI during Port-of-Spain police exercise

JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

Twelve peo­ple, in­clud­ing a re­tired US cit­i­zen, were charged with dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence of al­co­hol dur­ing a five-hour po­lice ex­er­cise in Port of Spain to­day.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, the ex­er­cise be­gan along Park Street, Port of Spain at 12:30 am and end­ed at 5:30 am on March 28, 2026.

Among those charged was a re­tired US cit­i­zen. The group in­clud­ed men and women from var­i­ous ar­eas across Trinidad. Two women were among the dozen dri­vers charged.

Po­lice al­so stopped and searched 63 oth­er ve­hi­cles, but noth­ing il­le­gal was found. The ex­er­cise was led by Snr Supt Thom, along with Su­per­in­ten­dents Baird and Re­vanales, and ASP Cadette, who co­or­di­nat­ed the op­er­a­tion.

Un­der the 2025/2026 Na­tion­al Bud­get, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo an­nounced a new penal­ty for dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence. Dri­vers caught with a blood al­co­hol lev­el above the le­gal lim­it are now li­able to a TT$15,000 fine, part of mea­sures aimed at im­prov­ing road safe­ty.