Police boost coastal patrols after recent maritime tragedies

Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

Of­fi­cers of the South-West­ern Di­vi­sion say they are con­tin­u­ing to mon­i­tor the coast­line fol­low­ing last week’s in­ci­dents that claimed the lives of three peo­ple, as the area is a known il­le­gal port.

Last week, the bod­ies of six-year-old Brithanny Lin­neth Yanett León Pala­cios and Ed­win Par­ra, both be­lieved to be Venezue­lan na­tion­als, washed ashore at Los Iros beach in Erin.

The two were part of a group of about 20 to 30 Venezue­lan na­tion­als who had left Trinidad for Venezuela last Wednes­day when their boat cap­sized due to over­crowd­ing.

Days lat­er, an­oth­er il­le­gal sea voy­age end­ed in tragedy when a boat al­leged­ly trans­port­ing cop­per to Venezuela sank in rough seas off Ica­cos last Sat­ur­day, leav­ing one Venezue­lan man, Julio Lopez, dead.

Dur­ing yes­ter­day’s me­dia brief­ing, ASP Joel Forbes of the South-West­ern Di­vi­sion said the coast­line is be­ing mon­i­tored by po­lice along with mem­bers of the De­fence Force.

“We have been vig­i­lant when it comes to that. We are about sev­en miles away from Venezuela, and we have com­mu­ni­ties that are in­ter­wo­ven with move­ment be­tween the two coun­tries and with that move­ment these are things that un­for­tu­nate­ly hap­pen from time to time. In terms of per­sons com­ing and go­ing, what we have been able to do, with as­sis­tance from the Coast Guard, we have been able to se­cure the bor­ders. We, the po­lice, are will­ing and have been work­ing to try to pre­vent fu­ture in­ci­dents like this from oc­cur­ring.”