SSA reports show over 2M calls and data communication intercepted in 5 years

Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

Se­nior Re­porter

eliz­a­beth.gon­za­[email protected]

Statu­to­ry re­ports from the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency show the State in­ter­cept­ed over two mil­lion calls and da­ta be­tween 2018 and 2023, but none of the re­ports re­viewed or pub­lic state­ments record­ed a con­vic­tion aris­ing from crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings in which in­ter­cept­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tions were used.

On Fri­day, at­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing Ra­jaee Ali and Earl Richards, who are be­ing held un­der Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders at Teteron Bar­racks, wrote to Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der on Ju­ly 8, chal­leng­ing him to jus­ti­fy their con­tin­ued de­ten­tion.

Their le­gal team—led by Criston Williams— ar­gued that the fail­ure to lay an­nu­al re­ports re­quired un­der the In­ter­cep­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Act and Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency Act pre­vent­ed prop­er scruti­ny of the in­tel­li­gence frame­work be­ing re­lied up­on by the State.

The lawyers said in­tel­li­gence gath­er­ing and covert pow­ers ap­peared to have formed a cen­tral part of the jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for the State of Emer­gency and the men’s con­tin­ued de­ten­tion. They asked Alexan­der to say whether the miss­ing re­ports were pre­pared, ex­plain why they were not laid and re­con­sid­er whether the PDOs re­mained nec­es­sary and pro­por­tion­ate.

The fig­ures from the re­ports al­so add to ques­tions raised by Guardian Me­dia last week af­ter in­for­ma­tion ob­tained via a Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­quest from the Ju­di­cia­ry showed judges ap­proved 314 in­ter­cep­tion war­rants be­tween 2020 and May 2026. The Ju­di­cia­ry pro­vid­ed the num­ber of ap­provals and re­fusals but did not say how many in­ves­ti­ga­tions reached court or pro­duced con­vic­tions.

The In­ter­cep­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Act 2018 An­nu­al Re­port record­ed 798,884 speech and da­ta in­ter­cep­tions, ac­cord­ing to fig­ures pre­vi­ous­ly re­port­ed by Guardian Me­dia. The In­ter­cep­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Act 2019 An­nu­al Re­port record­ed an­oth­er 437,746 in­ter­cep­tions.

The In­ter­cep­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Act 2020 An­nu­al Re­port record­ed 258,237 in­ter­cep­tions—220,735 in­volv­ing speech and 37,502 in­volv­ing da­ta. It cov­ered 36 tar­gets and list­ed war­rants linked to in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to mur­der, kid­nap­ping, firearms of­fences and drug traf­fick­ing.

That 2020 re­port record­ed no ar­rests aris­ing from iden­ti­ties dis­cov­ered through in­ter­cep­tion, no crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings in which in­ter­cept­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tions were used as ev­i­dence and no con­vic­tions. The In­ter­cep­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Act 2021 An­nu­al Re­port record­ed 316,374 in­ter­cep­tions—270,674 in­volv­ing speech and 45,700 in­volv­ing da­ta. It record­ed no crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings in which in­ter­cept­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tions were used as ev­i­dence and no con­vic­tions.

The In­ter­cep­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Act 2023 An­nu­al Re­port record­ed an­oth­er 192,748 in­ter­cep­tions—162,468 in­volv­ing speech and 30,280 in­volv­ing da­ta. It cov­ered 18 tar­gets and re­port­ed 16 ar­rests re­sult­ing from in­ter­cep­tions. It al­so record­ed five crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings in which in­ter­cept­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tions were used as ev­i­dence, but no con­vic­tions.

The 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 re­ports were laid in the Sen­ate on May 17, 2022, and in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on May 23, 2022. The 2023 re­port was laid in the Sen­ate on June 23, 2025, but did not reach the House un­til Sep­tem­ber 12, 2025. Re­ports for 2022, 2024 and 2025 could not be found in Par­lia­ment’s pub­lic on­line archive. The Act re­quires an­nu­al re­port­ing to Par­lia­ment. The re­port­ing gaps are now be­ing raised in the State of Emer­gency.

Mean­while, a sep­a­rate re­port by Glob­al spy­ware con­sul­tan­cy com­pa­ny— Record­ed Fu­ture’s In­sikt Group— has al­so placed Trinidad and To­ba­go among coun­tries linked to heavy use of com­mer­cial spy­ware, es­pe­cial­ly be­tween 2025 to 2026.

The June 17 re­port, State Dig­i­tal Sur­veil­lance Risk Land­scape, said in­ves­ti­ga­tions be­tween 2024 and 2026 found ev­i­dence that T&T was among 16 coun­tries that had de­ployed Preda­tor or Can­diru spy­ware. It said in­fra­struc­ture iden­ti­fied in Feb­ru­ary 2024 in­di­cat­ed like­ly con­tin­ued Preda­tor use in this coun­try.

The State first pub­licly con­firmed pos­sess­ing in­ter­cep­tion tech­nol­o­gy in April 2022. Then prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said for­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith had ob­tained an in­ter­cep­tion sys­tem which was lat­er trans­ferred to the SSA, al­though he de­nied it was Pe­ga­sus. Act­ing po­lice com­mis­sion­er Mc­Don­ald Ja­cob al­so con­firmed that an­oth­er type of in­ter­cep­tion soft­ware had been pur­chased.

The SSA lat­er said in its 2023 an­nu­al re­port that it had de­ployed equip­ment to ex­pand its in­ter­cep­tion ca­pa­bil­i­ties.

How­ev­er, the State has nev­er pub­licly con­firmed us­ing Preda­tor, the spy­ware iden­ti­fied in the glob­al re­port.

The re­port did not iden­ti­fy the agency/s op­er­at­ing the spy­ware or any lo­cal tar­gets. It al­so did not say T&T was us­ing Pe­ga­sus ei­ther.