- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Hier 16:13

Senior prison official detained in SoE sweep

A senior prisons superintendent has become the latest figure to be detained under the state of emergency. According to a detention order gazetted on August 26, the officer was credibly identified as an associate of the Radical Islamic Criminal Gang and other networks, accused of providing support to incarcerated gang leaders and members. Officials allege that, by virtue of his position, he facilitated breaches of prison security, enabling contraband to reach inmates who were actively plotting violent attacks, including the imminent killing of public officials with high-powered rifles. The order states that he poses a “serious threat to public safety,” and continued to use his position of prison supervisor to assist gang members in co-ordinating activity despite their incarceration at the military prisons. He was ordered detained at the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre (ECRC) in Santa Rosa. The detention comes just days after Newsday revealed yet another security breach at Staubles Bay, where a cellphone and charger were discovered inside the coast guard’s headquarters on August 21. The incident forced authorities to shuffle several high-risk inmates back to Teteron Barracks, where electronic signals are completely jammed. These same prisoners, accused of plotting assassinations, kidnappings, and orchestrating gang wars from behind bars, had been moved multiple times since July 18 — first from the Maximum Security Prison to Teteron, then to Staubles Bay, and now back again. This was not the first breach. Earlier attempts to smuggle phones into military detention prompted the government to widen emergency powers regulations, criminalising possession of any article reasonably suspected of being intended for prison smuggling. Since the SoE was declared on July 18, Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander has signed more than 50 preventive detention orders, targeting alleged gang leaders, enforcers, and facilitators. To date, 33 orders have been gazetted, including Rajaee Ali, his brother Hamid and Earl Richards, accused of leading and directing the Radical Islamic Criminal Gang from prison. Legal notices claim Ali conspired with the GR8 Gang Alliance to carry out imminent assassinations of law enforcement officers and public officials. His detention order alleged that he was able to maintain gang communications and direct activity while at the military facility, demonstrating what officials described as an immediate and ongoing threat to national security. Richards and Hamid Ali are alleged to have engaged in similar conspiracies while maintaining gang communications behind bars. Rajaee Ali and Richards are challenging their detention and transfers from the Maximum Security Prison to military bases. Other detention orders describe enforcers and shooters from groups in Diego Martin, Penal, Fyzabad, and Port of Spain — many accused of planning imminent attacks with high-powered rifles, orchestrating armed robberies, or engaging in retaliatory gang violence. At the same time, four detention orders have been revoked, including for men previously accused of robberies and firearms offences. No reasons were given for the revocations. Parliament has since approved measures allowing the Minister of Homeland Security to designate any location, including military bases, as prisons. The government has argued that these extraordinary steps are necessary to blunt the reach of gangs who have continued to operate from inside traditional prisons, often with the assistance of compromised officers. On August 22, Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro warned that, “The TTPS will use every lawful measure available under the state of emergency to disrupt and dismantle criminal syndicates. “The TTPS is acting strategically and intentionally, which sends a clear message that the police service will do what is necessary to ensure that the rule of law will prevail.” The post Senior prison official detained in SoE sweep appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.