‘Fake bad man meet real bad man’- PM warns Maloney gangs

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has vowed to use Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions to put down gangs op­er­at­ing in Mal­oney, de­clar­ing that her Gov­ern­ment will do what­ev­er it takes to pro­tect res­i­dents from vi­o­lence and in­tim­i­da­tion.

In a strong­ly word­ed so­cial me­dia post, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Gov­ern­ment would con­tin­ue de­ploy­ing se­cu­ri­ty forces in the com­mu­ni­ty, in­clud­ing through spe­cial op­er­a­tions, to con­front gangs ac­cused of ter­ror­is­ing res­i­dents.

Her com­ments fol­lowed a se­cu­ri­ty op­er­a­tion launched on Tues­day night in­volv­ing mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF) and the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) in Mal­oney, with­in Po­lice Dis­trict Two.

Un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act, the Mal­oney Build­ings Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment has al­so been de­clared a closed area, with res­i­dents sub­ject to a night­ly cur­few from 9 pm to 5 am. The re­stric­tions were im­posed through Le­gal No­tice No. 848, dat­ed No­vem­ber 10, 2026.

The Prime Min­is­ter claimed gang mem­bers avoid­ed con­fronting the se­cu­ri­ty forces dur­ing the op­er­a­tion, choos­ing in­stead to hide.

“That is what hap­pens when fake bad man meet re­al bad man,” she de­clared.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said law-abid­ing res­i­dents, par­tic­u­lar­ly women and chil­dren, should not have to flee their homes be­cause of gangs fir­ing in­dis­crim­i­nate­ly in their com­mu­ni­ty.

She al­so crit­i­cised the pre­vi­ous Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ad­min­is­tra­tion and the sit­ting MP for Mal­oney, ac­cus­ing them of fail­ing to pro­tect res­i­dents from vi­o­lent gangs over the years.

The Prime Min­is­ter said her Gov­ern­ment would con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing State se­cu­ri­ty pro­tec­tion to any com­mu­ni­ty where res­i­dents want­ed it, re­gard­less of po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion.

“If there is one law-abid­ing cit­i­zen in any com­mu­ni­ty who wants that pro­tec­tion, your prime min­is­ter and my gov­ern­ment will move to pro­vide it,” she said.

She thanked the po­lice of­fi­cers, sol­diers and oth­er se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel in­volved in the op­er­a­tion, pray­ing for their pro­tec­tion, strength and pa­tience as they car­ried out their du­ties.