Detention orders for Venezuelan extortionist, scrap iron thief

Ke­jan Haynes

The lat­est pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion or­ders is­sued un­der the State of Emer­gency ac­cuse de­tainees of roles rang­ing from run­ning an ex­tor­tion net­work linked to Venezuela to steal­ing in­dus­tri­al ma­te­ri­als for the scrap met­al trade, ac­cord­ing to no­tices pub­lished in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gazette.

Among the lat­est or­ders is one for Venezue­lan na­tion­al Hec­tor Julio Ser­a­no Mar­tinez, is­sued on Ju­ly 5. Ac­cord­ing to the no­tice, au­thor­i­ties have "cred­i­bly iden­ti­fied" him as a mem­ber of an or­gan­ised transna­tion­al crim­i­nal group op­er­at­ing be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela.

The or­der al­leges the group en­gages in ex­tor­tion, rob­bery and oth­er or­gan­ised crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, us­ing lo­cal and for­eign What­sApp num­bers to threat­en mem­bers of the pub­lic and de­mand mon­ey. It fur­ther al­leges Mar­tinez act­ed as a lo­cal con­tact re­spon­si­ble for col­lect­ing mon­ey ob­tained through the ex­tor­tion scheme and that in­tel­li­gence sug­gest­ed the group in­tend­ed to es­ca­late at­tacks tar­get­ing busi­ness­es and the wider pub­lic.

The de­ten­tion or­der said his con­tin­ued de­ten­tion was nec­es­sary to dis­rupt those plans and pre­vent acts prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty.

An­oth­er or­der, is­sued on Ju­ly 6, names Aki­ni Joseph al­so known as "Mun­do", who in­ves­ti­ga­tors al­lege is part of an in­for­mal crime group in­volved in break­ing in­to com­mer­cial premis­es to steal brass valves, tools and oth­er ma­te­ri­als for sale through the scrap met­al trade.

Ac­cord­ing to the no­tice, Joseph has been linked to dis­pos­ing of stolen items through his scrap met­al busi­ness. It al­so al­leges he threat­ened named po­lice of­fi­cers dur­ing a re­cent search of his prop­er­ty and has been linked to re­ports in­volv­ing firearm pos­ses­sion. Au­thor­i­ties said in­tel­li­gence in­di­cat­ed the group in­tend­ed to in­ten­si­fy at­tacks on com­mer­cial premis­es.

The Gazette al­so de­tails the al­leged roles of sev­er­al oth­er de­tainees.

Ha­keem Cole, al­so known as "6", is al­leged to be a shoot­er for the Alien/7 Gang. Au­thor­i­ties al­lege the gang is in­volved in armed rob­beries, ex­tor­tion, home in­va­sions, shoot­ings, mul­ti­ple homi­cides and lar­ce­ny, and had planned to es­ca­late at­tacks on ri­val gangs us­ing high-pow­ered firearms.

Jevon Atkins, al­so known as "Long­head", is al­leged to be an en­forcer for the Davis Street/9 Gang. The no­tice al­leges the gang has ac­cess to high-pow­ered firearms and is en­gaged in armed rob­beries, ex­tor­tion, home in­va­sions, shoot­ings, mul­ti­ple homi­cides and lar­ce­ny. Au­thor­i­ties claim the group in­tend­ed to in­ten­si­fy re­tal­ia­to­ry at­tacks against ri­vals.

A sep­a­rate or­der for Joel Sandy al­leges he is al­so a mem­ber of the Davis Street/9 Gang and was ex­pect­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the same planned es­ca­la­tion of gang vi­o­lence.

Ja­son Wil­son, al­so known as "Gillo" or "Der­rick", is al­leged to be an en­forcer for the Oropouche or­gan­ised crime group. Ac­cord­ing to the no­tice, the group is in­volved in armed rob­beries tar­get­ing com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties. Au­thor­i­ties al­lege Wil­son was re­cent­ly found near a hand­gun and am­mu­ni­tion and that in­tel­li­gence sug­gest­ed the group planned to in­crease armed rob­beries in pub­lic spaces.

An­oth­er de­ten­tion or­der iden­ti­fies Dim­itri Boodoo, al­so known as "D-Man", as an al­leged par­tic­i­pant in an in­for­mal crime group ac­cused of house­break­ing, rob­beries, nar­cotics and firearms traf­fick­ing, armed home in­va­sions, wit­ness in­tim­i­da­tion and shoot­ings. The no­tice al­leges the group planned to in­ten­si­fy vi­o­lent break-ins tar­get­ing busi­ness­es, places of wor­ship and homes while al­so fac­ing in­ter­nal con­flicts that could lead to re­tal­ia­to­ry shoot­ings.

Each de­ten­tion or­der says au­thor­i­ties re­lied on con­fi­den­tial in­tel­li­gence and con­clud­ed pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion un­der Reg­u­la­tion 14 of the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2026, was nec­es­sary to dis­rupt the al­leged crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty and pre­vent ac­tions prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty.

The de­ten­tion or­ders were signed by Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der be­tween May 23 and Ju­ly 6 and pub­lished in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gazette.