Seven arrested in Oropune Gardens operation

Sev­en men were ar­rest­ed dur­ing a joint op­er­a­tion con­duct­ed by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice and the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force in Orop­une Gar­dens, Pi­ar­co, on Wednes­day.

Ac­cord­ing to a me­dia re­lease from the TTPS, the ex­er­cise took place be­tween 4 a.m. and 6:45 a.m. and re­sult­ed in the ar­rest of sev­en men on Pre­ven­ta­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders.

Po­lice said the op­er­a­tion formed part of on­go­ing ef­forts to tar­get of­fend­ers and dis­rupt crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty with­in the North­ern Di­vi­sion.

The TTPS stat­ed that the ex­er­cise was in­tel­li­gence-led and in­volved of­fi­cers and sol­diers from sev­er­al units of the Po­lice Ser­vice and De­fence Force.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, DCP Op­er­a­tions Suzette Mar­tin, Snr Supt Gift of the North Cen­tral Di­vi­sion and Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force Lieu­tenant Com­man­der Shel­don Dugan co­or­di­nat­ed the op­er­a­tion.

The TTPS said the ex­er­cise was part of co­or­di­nat­ed op­er­a­tions be­ing car­ried out across the coun­try by the Po­lice Ser­vice and De­fence Force.

In the re­lease, the Po­lice Ser­vice said the op­er­a­tions are aimed at dis­man­tling crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, dis­rupt­ing il­le­gal net­works and restor­ing safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty in com­mu­ni­ties.

Units in­volved in the ex­er­cise in­clud­ed the DCP Op­er­a­tions Team, the Guard and Emer­gency Branch, the In­ter-Agency Task Force, the North Cen­tral Gang Unit, Arou­ca CID, Tu­na­puna CID and the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force.

The TTPS said joint op­er­a­tions be­tween the Po­lice Ser­vice and De­fence Force con­tin­ue in sev­er­al di­vi­sions as part of on­go­ing crime-fight­ing ef­forts.

Po­lice did not dis­close the iden­ti­ties of the sev­en men ar­rest­ed or pro­vide de­tails on the of­fences be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed.

The re­lease al­so did not state whether any weapons, am­mu­ni­tion or oth­er items were seized dur­ing the op­er­a­tion.

The TTPS said in­tel­li­gence-led ex­er­cis­es re­main part of its strat­e­gy to ad­dress crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty and tar­get per­sons iden­ti­fied dur­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

The Po­lice Ser­vice added that op­er­a­tions in­volv­ing mul­ti­ple law en­force­ment units will con­tin­ue as au­thor­i­ties seek to ad­dress crime and gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty in com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go.