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j.o.e
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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby j.o.e » January 14th, 2015, 7:55 am

It's a piece to sell papers...Nothing to see here. People will buy hoping for some juicy, new information. All this sounds like the normal stories that been shared over and over for years in rumshops

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby airuma » January 14th, 2015, 10:48 am

Who owns Guardian???

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby dougla_boy » January 14th, 2015, 11:26 am

until i hear names drop, people in court and evidence, dis piece is sh!t....best she did do a haiku on a piece of used tp

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby j.o.e » January 14th, 2015, 11:29 am

Trinidad needs an anonymous website for whistle blowing ..nothing will ever make it to the 'real' media

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Redman » January 14th, 2015, 11:36 am

Allyuh want the woman to get killed/fired before the series done?

The media is adept at creating the hype-they sell papers and ads.

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby EFFECTIC DESIGNS » January 14th, 2015, 1:16 pm

j.o.e wrote:It's a piece to sell papers...Nothing to see here. People will buy hoping for some juicy, new information. All this sounds like the normal stories that been shared over and over for years in rumshops


Spot on I must say. Not just rum shops, taxi drivers etc.

So this means I could become a reporter and do a story on how Trinis does buy sheit no matter how high the price goes up?
I could a grand story on how Trinis never stop buying KFC even though the price keeps going up for no good reason? A story about how Trinis does complain but they still buying sheit?

This story the Guardian did is about as informative and useful as a diabetic in a rum shop telling me how in 1958 he see ah Lagahoo in the bush behind the neighbor friend house under the big tree to the left of the mangoo tree.

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Allergic2BunnyEars » January 14th, 2015, 1:37 pm

EFFECTIC DESIGNS wrote:
j.o.e wrote:It's a piece to sell papers...Nothing to see here. People will buy hoping for some juicy, new information. All this sounds like the normal stories that been shared over and over for years in rumshops


Spot on I must say. Not just rum shops, taxi drivers etc.

So this means I could become a reporter and do a story on how Trinis does buy sheit no matter how high the price goes up?
I could a grand story on how Trinis never stop buying KFC even though the price keeps going up for no good reason? A story about how Trinis does complain but they still buying sheit?

This story the Guardian did is about as informative and useful as a diabetic in a rum shop telling me how in 1958 he see ah Lagahoo in the bush behind the neighbor friend house under the big tree to the left of the mangoo tree.


To be fair you still keep posting even though most of tuner says you post drivel. Guardian makes money so I guess that's their incentive.

What's yours?

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Dizzy28 » January 14th, 2015, 1:53 pm

16 cycles wrote:
The court also heard that in conjunction with the Sea Mist a series of yachts left their Chaguaramas anchorages laden with cocaine and even heroin for England and ports in Europe. Two other vessels also were given similar treatment at Chaguaramas. They are the yacht The Aquarius, with 226.6 kilos of cocaine for delivery to Antigua in 1994, and The Obsession, with over 200 kilos of cocaine destined for Britain in 1996. Local intelligence authorities are said to be closely working with their international counterparts on Monday’s bust. - See more at: http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/news ... VTRJ1.dpuf



hope she follows this trail as well....



If any Government administration of Trinidad decide to stop them Laventillians and Beethamites from using their yachts, marinas, ports and private islands we could put a serious dent in the drug trade!!

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Spitfir3 » January 14th, 2015, 2:25 pm

such info
much new
damn.

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Allergic2BunnyEars » January 15th, 2015, 8:31 am

Legal ports a platform for drug cartels via Unholy alliances

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2015-01- ... -alliances



Multi-media journalist Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine has been investigating T&T’s flourishing illegal drug trade for the past several weeks. That journey has taken her to several parts of the country for extensive interviews with several people involved in the trade, people who have been researching it and members of the law enforcement agencies charged with trying to prevent the activity.

Today, she chats with some sources on how the drugs are brought into the country in part three of her six-part series on the trade titled Cracks in Our Borders.

Illicit trade researcher Darius Figueira says that boat running brings only the leftovers of drug cargo into T&T. “The good old days of product coming in on pirogues and floating across the Gulf of Paria, that is now passé. The prime method is containerised cargo,” he told the Guardian Media Limited (GML) Enterprise Desk.

He said other than being geographically close, T&T’s involvement in international trade provided a bigger platform for international drug cartels—the prospect of conducting their illicit trade under the guise of seemingly legitimate businesses. He said, “Any trafficker worth his salt would want to mix his product with the products that enter and exit T&T, because we have the volume of trade and financial volume by which traffickers will mix their product and dirty money,” he said.

Minister of National Security Gary Griffith has a similar opinion. “Obviously we have heavy illegal entry of guns and drugs into the country. Is it because of illegal ports of entry or is it through legitimate ports of entry through containers or people who enter through the airport?” he asked.

In January 2014, TT$644 million dollars’ worth of cocaine was intercepted in a container in Norfolk, United States. The drugs were hidden in crates of a fruit juice which is manufactured here in T&T and this country was its port of origin.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation stepped in to help T&T police with the case, but the public is yet to hear of any substantial breakthrough, although Griffith and the police repeatedly said during the course of last year that it was being thoroughly investigated and was at a sensitive stage.

Head of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, Professor Andy Knight, agrees with the theory that drug cartels transport their cargo through legal means, which means that legal ports would necessarily have to be infiltrated. The lack of proper infrastructure to deal with the millions of containers which come into these ports annually, including modern scanners, is but one weakness which the drug cartels take advantage of.

“It seems as though there is a fair amount of corruption at the ports of entry and, also, I don’t think there is sufficient security at the ports of entry in T&T to be able to deal with every single cargo ship. What they’re doing is spot checking,” Knight said.

ILLEGAL ECONOMIES
The UN estimated that during the period January to June 2008, 564 metric tonnes of cocaine were transited by sea through the Caribbean.This is equivalent to about 20 40-foot containers filled with cocaine.

Retired Commodore Anthony Franklin, then in his capacity as director of the Institute of Marine Affairs, also pointed out that 90 per cent of drugs entering the Caribbean reached its final destination, in a document titled Prevention and Suppression of Transnational Organised Crime, which used figures for the 2007-2008 period.

Prof Knight says in order to move these shipments, underworld elements forge alliances not only with customs officials but at every echelon necessary to keep the business afloat. “The real issue is that there is so much money involved, in some cases revenues surpass the revenues or GDPs of countries in the region,” Knight said.

He said this was the money which churned small economies and created symbiotic relationships throughout societies, making it difficult for all states to fight trafficking. They can outspend you, they can outpace you—speedier boats than Coast Guard, sometimes [they] have light aircraft—making them more difficult to deal with this type of organisation with the limited amount of revenue.”

Once the cargo got to its destination, Knight said, money laundering then put the dirty money to illicit use and shell companies were set up to funnel payments through a process of over or under invoicing. Economist Dr Roger Hosein explained how this worked. “So you may buy something from Colombia for two million dollars that is really for 40 dollars and the surplus money is used to pay for other type of products,” he said.

Corrupt officials
The International Security Sector Advisory Team’s current country profile of T&T says, “Reports of corruption among the police, the armed forces and customs officials are also frequent, and many officials are not properly or routinely vetted.” One senior Customs and Excise officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all cargo entering our ports of entry was subject to checks, except delivery-authorised containers.

“When the shipper has been compliant, with a proven track record of paying all taxes, you know everything has been above board; they get a green clearance,” he said, in explaining what the delivery-authorised system means. But all other cargo is selected at random for scanning.

“This means we take out everything from the container and we go through it and make sure the same items declared are the same items in it, because we have had cases where things are not dutiable and too many items in containers were not declared,” he said. Over the years, he said, drug smugglers had also been innovative in how they brought in their cargo, even hiding the contraband in hollowed out vegetables and power tools.

Asked why each container was not scanned given the issues with shipments of contraband, he said, “If you have to do each container it will be time consuming and there would be people who would have to pay a lot of demurrage, so you pick and choose shippers, especially first-time shippers.” This system is not unique to T&T. Indeed, Figueira says, even in the United States it’s impossible to check every shipment.

“The volume of trade and product moving into the USA, [there is] no way you can flag everything and search everything 100 per cent," Figueira said. Figueira also said traffickers flooded the State with a torrent of narcotics, so little could be done to combat the contraband world. They also ensured that the bulk of their product got to its destination by recruiting customs officials, he said.

“Don’t send anything by chance. Make sure when my product lands you have customs officers on duty to clear it,” he said.

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby cornfused » January 15th, 2015, 12:59 pm

This is topic that many find interesting. The biggest consumers of drugs are in the North . We are just a transhipment point . Most if not all Cartels can have resources to defeat most control mechanisms. Right now Mexico is the largest point of transmission for drugs heading to the US . Drugs may come her by go fast boats, fishing boats with 400 hp , larger vessels , persons on boat on planes , containers , small aircraft . The Scott Drug Report was never taken seriously maybe because it was too shocking and harsh for Trinidad to bear at this time . Players have changed maybe . Effects here have been as the articles have said stealing of shipments from gangs and inter gang activity , illegal guns on the streets , mixing of public funds and real estate prices .

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Slartibartfast » January 15th, 2015, 3:03 pm

You forgot submarines. They using submarines so that the only thing above the water is a small clear dome for them to see above the water. That way it impossible to pick up from aircrafts or boats at night and even infrared has a problem seeing it as it is under the water.

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby pugboy » January 15th, 2015, 3:27 pm

this darius figueria expert chap not saying anything new.....

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby zoom rader » January 15th, 2015, 3:38 pm

Slartibartfast wrote:You forgot submarines. They using submarines so that the only thing above the water is a small clear dome for them to see above the water. That way it impossible to pick up from aircrafts or boats at night and even infrared has a problem seeing it as it is under the water.


Duh say semi subs, rfari will not be pleased.

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby SMc » January 15th, 2015, 3:51 pm

pugboy wrote:this darius figueria expert chap not saying anything new.....


I don't think they have asked him anything we did not already know or a more likely scenario is that they pulled excerpts from previous interviews and passing it off as new material.

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Allergic2BunnyEars » January 16th, 2015, 8:15 am

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2015-01- ... -be-bought

Drug cartels use oldest trick in book - State officials can be bought


Multi-media journalist Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine has been investigating T&T’s flourishing illegal drug trade for the past several weeks. That journey has taken her to several parts of the country for extensive interviews with several people involved in the trade, people who have been researching it and members of the law enforcement agencies and government charged with trying to prevent the activity.

Today, she looks at the age-old theory that there may be state involvement in the trade and the system set up to detect illegal drug shipments in part four of her six-part series on the trade titled Cracks in Our Borders.

Head of International Relations at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Andy Knight and drug trade researcher Darius Figueira both believe there is State involvement in the international drug trade.

They argue that the only way narcotics can be successfully moved in and out of T&T as successfully as it has been over the years, with little or no detection, is with the cooperation of the State and its agencies.

“I can’t say for sure which parliamentarians, government sources are being corrupted by drug traffickers, but I’m sure this happens and sometimes it captures the state,” Knight told Guardian Media Limited’s Enterprise Desk.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if, for example, some drug cartels are able to get some politicians by simply giving them cash necessary to fund political campaigns to get him into power.”

Such an investment by a drug cartel would reap dividends since payback would be guaranteed.

“Once in power, the cartel would one day demand something, whether it’s closing a blind eye or maybe some money is used to corrupt the police force or the military force.”

Even the Jamaican Gleaner wrote of this possibility in a February 2002 editorial, saying party financing from the private sector has significantly decreased over the years.

“The contamination of the electoral process and party finance by drug money has therefore become a clear and present danger across the Caribbean,” the paper wrote.

In 1989, 50 police officers were suspended and then commissioner of police Randolph Burroughs resigned after allegations of their involvement in a drug cartel.

The International Security Sector Advisory Team’s current country profile of T&T states, “In the early 2000s, the government faced accusations that many high-level officials ...had ties to gang leaders.”



Give to get back

Figueira said this allegation is nothing new.

“That’s the oldest tactic, starting with Pablo Escobar, corrupting officials of the state. And how do you corrupt them, by literally deluging them with money.”

He added, “Every dollar you spend to corrupt the state, you are in fact purchasing impunity. Governments are willing to pick low lying fruit— the easiest application to win the most votes.”

Explaining this, he said the drug of choice in Trinidad—marijuana—may be targeted while the cocaine is allowed to come into the country.

Marijuana can be locally grown and while there is a vast difference in the profit margin between cocaine and marijuana, the latter activity at least has the advantage of allowing the drug cartels to conduct it inland in some of the dense forests available.

The US Department of State’s 2014 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report on T&T also uncovered a new trend where Jamaican nationals in this country barter shipments of marijuana for cocaine for re-export.



MORE INFO

Drug trade researcher Darius Figueira gave an insight into the trading of drugs

• One kilo of cocaine costing US$1,500, if successfully trafficked to Europe, wholesales for about US$50,000. That’s almost 33 times its cost and a profit of over 300 per cent.

• Ten per cent of the profit from drugs goes to traffickers.



GRIFFITH: BORDERS NOT POROUS

Minister of National Security Gary Griffith says T&T borders are comparatively safe.

“Many times people will criticise us for this road march we continue to hear about the borders being porous, but in fact in comparison to many other islands and the size of T&T we have done pretty well,” he told GML.

In 2006, the then government invested in a $130 million Israeli 360 degree coastal radar system. Ten radar sites across the country were erected and the data obtained was supposed to be transmitted to the national radar centre for monitoring.

Years later, reports surfaced that the radars were not functional. In 2011 the system was upgraded and repaired, Griffith said, but it is now all about how the intelligence gained from the system is used.

“Now that we have locked down the radar with that 360 degree what happens next? It’s all well and good people at the radar centre can monitor movements, but how do you respond to it?”



HOLES IN RADAR NET



The GML team visited eight of the 10 sites across the country— San Fernando Hill, Toco, Manzanilla, Moruga, Cedros, Point Galeota, Charlotteville and Bacolet. The two others, we were told, are located in Staubles Bay and Chacachacare.

Two of the eight radar sites were not functional. The radar at Manzanilla was motionless and residents said it had been that way for the past 10 years. The one at Point Galeota was missing—the tower stood erect but there was no radar at the top.

Griffith said the locations are not hidden but are guarded.

“For obvious reasons you would not want to pinpoint areas where these things are. There are concerns of sabotage,” he said.

“The more people know, they try to see who working there, they can be—it’s not top secret but we do not expose to the public, to let them know exactly where the radar centres are.”

Told that the two non-functional radars were adjoining each other and meant that almost 50 miles of coastline were unprotected, Griffith said, “Obviously I will not make mention of areas which there may be blind spots, obviously for national security reasons.

“However, if one aspect is down there are others that overlap. There are other radars which would overlap into those which you cited, so it’s not to give the impression that because it’s not spinning, it’s automatically seen that these things are not working.”

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Redman » January 16th, 2015, 8:27 am

Borders not porus

We are a massive illegal drug transhipment point

reconcile these two statements

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Hyperion » January 16th, 2015, 8:33 am

why she only interviewing Darius Figueria and Andy Knight? She afraid to step out of her UWI safe bubble?

as I said previously, this is not an investigative piece, this is merely using print media to publish what criminologists speak about in their lectures. A lot of hearsay

Waste of time

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Slartibartfast » January 17th, 2015, 8:28 am

Yeah nothing new. I love how 50,000 is 300 percent profit on $1500 tho.

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby pioneer » January 17th, 2015, 8:38 am

Hyperion wrote:why she only interviewing Darius Figueria and Andy Knight? She afraid to step out of her UWI safe bubble?

as I said previously, this is not an investigative piece, this is merely using print media to publish what criminologists speak about in their lectures. A lot of hearsay

Waste of time


lol costatt student identified

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby joker » January 17th, 2015, 9:27 am

y she eh come rong Medillin :lol:

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Allergic2BunnyEars » January 17th, 2015, 6:50 pm

Better late than never?

Suspicious deals on seas a norm

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2015-01- ... -guard-can’t-stem-drug-tide

Cracks in our Borders



Multi-media journalist Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine has been investigating T&T’s flourishing illegal drug trade for the past several weeks. That journey has taken her to several parts of the country for extensive interviews with several people involved in the trade, people who have been researching it and members of the law enforcement agencies and government charged with trying to prevent the activity.

Today, she talks to fishermen about the activity they have seen on the high seas and a former drug mule who was caught in part five of her six-part series on the trade titled Cracks in Our Borders.

Fishermen in Moruga harbour suspicions about the coastal radar system which has been set up across T&T to protect the country’s borders from infiltration by the drug cartels. They told the Guardian Media Limited’s (GML) Enterprise Desk that even though the functional radars were rotating, they did not believe they were picking up vessels entering and exiting our territory.

The radars are supposed to be able to detect vessels at a radius of 60 kilometres at sea, GML was told. In theory, that means the Coast Guard should be able to detect any vessel and, more importantly, any suspicious activity within the area. But vice president of the Grand Chemin Fishing Association Kishan Sinanan says the experiences of his members at sea suggest to them that the radars are not working.

“To me it just spinning, because we don’t get any feedback,” Sinanan said. “If people break down at sea, if we go to the station or whosoever Coast Guard, they can’t give account of whosoever and whatsoever.” Another Moruga fisherman said based on some of the activity he had seen on the waters, the radars were either not working or drug running was being covered up or facilitated by the law enforcement agencies.

“I on the waters 24/7, that’s my job, I does do fishing. I on the waters. I does see suspicious vessels time and time again, through night and through day and yet still when I buy a papers I not seeing no interception of any vessels.” The fishermen said the absence and predictability of Coast Guard patrols gave them little confidence while at sea. “Normally, people know when the Coast Guard go up or down. They know how to do their run night or day or whatsoever,” one fisherman said.

“Things happens here, things is happening on the south eastern coast. I does be on the water at night 24/7. I does see movements of suspicious vessels all over the place and I see no Coast Guard.” Minister of National Security Gary Griffith agrees that there is much more to be done, but says it is a gradual process. He believes the system gives the Coast Guard the capability to respond to vessels coming into T&T waters.

Head of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, Prof Andy Knight, says just having the radars operational may not be enough. “Apart from the radar system you need to have adequate vessels to interdict traffickers who are trying to get into the region using small speedy boats an, in some cases, homemade submarines,” he said.

Griffith pointed out, however, that the Government had a three-tiered approach to border protection where vessels could patrol and interdict from the shoreline to deep waters. But fishermen are concerned that these new vessels may be just as irregular as current patrols. A game fisherman from Point Galeota said, “Now and then you see choppers pass by, but you don’t see no boat and thing.”

Human trafficking
Drug trade researcher Darius Figueira says our open and unmanned seas also open up another lucrative trade to international cartels—the most valuable of all—human trafficking. “When you look at the amount of people being smuggled through the Caribbean, that is the biggest business in the Caribbean today … trafficking of humans, because there is more profit in trafficking a human than to traffic a kilo (of cocaine),” he said.

Human trafficking, Figueira explained, was not just limited to prostitution rings, but included people who wanted to migrate and could not qualify. The US State Department gave T&T a tier two rating in their 2012 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. It pointed out that while efforts were being made, the country did not fully comply with the minimum standards for tackling human trafficking.

“You bring them in through the Caribbean, transit them through Central America, you put them in Mexico and move them to a border point, put them in the hands of a coyote to carry them across,” Figueira said. The 2014 TIP report published by the United States Department of State says “law enforcement and civil society reported that some police and immigration officers facilitated human trafficking in the country, with some government officials directly exploiting victims.”

A drug mule’s account
Professor Andy Knight says poverty makes citizens vulnerable as victims of the illegal drug trade. “There are a lot of people in these countries who are poor and are looking for some extra income, and it’s easy to convince them to become the mules for some cartel in South America or Latin America,” he said.

A 2005 survey of the women’s prison showed that drug-related offences accounted for 46.4 per cent of the incarcerations. Of those women imprisoned, trafficking accounted for 56 per cent of the charges that landed them in jail. Katryna Hamilton-Brown, a well-educated woman, contributed to this statistic. She told GML one bad decision in 2010 cost her over two years of her life apart from her children and family.

“I attempted to traffic drugs to Jamaica but I was subsequently held at the airport that very morning," she said during an interview. And all it took to lure her was 800 grammes of cocaine, a desire to get away and a promise of US$2,500. “I only met them once. They didn’t give me too much info. They said this is what's going to happen, this is how it’s going to go down and it’s going to happen tomorrow,” Hamilton-Brown said, adding that it was her first time.

She was dropped off at the Piarco International Airport with the cocaine stitched into her clothing.

Used as decoy
Hamilton-Brown recounted her anxiety as she went through the procedure to board the flight. “I’m feeling people staring at me for no apparent reason. Something inside of me says, ‘Katryna you don’t need to be here,’ but who do I call, what do I say?"
Initially, though, she successfully cleared Customs and was only waiting to get on to her flight.

“An officer came from nowhere and she was like, ‘I want to search you.’ I was like, ‘okay, that’s no problem, you can go ahead and search me.’ She just kept patting me down and said, ‘I know you have something on you, you know,’" she recalled. She was then taken to a separate room for a further search. “When we arrived in that room I took off the clothes and handed it to her. I was like, ‘here, this is what you looking for.’”

She said the officer seemed resilient, giving her the impression there was a tip-off and there was no way out. She eventually pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and spent over two years in prison. Hamilton-Brown said people who were approached to become drug mules were lured by stories of success, but the traffickers never told them the other side of the story.

“They never tell you that part of it, they never tell you about the girls who went to other countries and never made it back because they were raped or killed or whatever,” she said. She gave birth to her daughter behind bars and was able to spend just one day with the infant. Looking back, Hamilton-Brown said she knew one thing for sure, she was not the only mule dropped off at the airport that day, but was just the one to be caught.

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby brams112 » January 18th, 2015, 7:51 pm

Hyperion wrote:why she only interviewing Darius Figueria and Andy Knight? She afraid to step out of her UWI safe bubble?

as I said previously, this is not an investigative piece, this is merely using print media to publish what criminologists speak about in their lectures. A lot of hearsay

Waste of time

Everybody knows about drugs,how it comes how it leaves,but police and coast guards don't have a clue. This reporter needs to say something that nobody knows

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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby Slartibartfast » January 19th, 2015, 11:37 am

brams112 wrote:
Hyperion wrote:why she only interviewing Darius Figueria and Andy Knight? She afraid to step out of her UWI safe bubble?

as I said previously, this is not an investigative piece, this is merely using print media to publish what criminologists speak about in their lectures. A lot of hearsay

Waste of time

Everybody knows about drugs,how it comes how it leaves,but police and coast guards don't have a clue. This reporter needs to say something that nobody knows

You realise how contradictory this statement is right? You literally have to live in a bubble to not know about how drugs enters and leaves the country. Also, our coast guard are extemely well equipped for such a small island. You would be amazed at the kind of intel and equipment we have down here. Our Coast Guard officers also train with the best special forces around the world.

Believe me, they know how drugs enter into and leave this country. Not everyone in Coast Guard and police would be involved but those that aren't involved either know and look the other way due to fear for themselves and their family or are constantly lead in the wrong direction by those that know.

On a separate note, I don't feel comfortable calling this an "investigation". Nothing new here. I could get all this info in bobby's with a bottle of puncheon and some schwepp's in 30 minutes flat.

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The_Honourable
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Re: Guardian Investigative series on local drug trade

Postby The_Honourable » July 5th, 2015, 9:31 pm

Interesting interview with Darius Figueira about the drug trade in T&T and the Caribbean.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

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Businessmen blocking million-dollar drug probes

Postby stikid09 » May 13th, 2019, 6:10 pm

The mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar co­caine find abroad a Span­ish tanker at At­lantic LNG in Point Fortin in April has un­hinged a so­phis­ti­cat­ed drug smug­gling op­er­a­tion fa­cil­i­tat­ed by a net­work of in­flu­en­tial lo­cal busi­ness­men with po­lit­i­cal con­nec­tions on both sides of the fence.

High-rank­ing in­tel­li­gence sources, cus­toms of­fi­cials, and se­nior po­lice sources speak­ing on the con­di­tion of anonymi­ty con­firmed the pat­tern of this or­gan­ised net­work, that is al­so en­gag­ing the at­ten­tion of US law en­force­ment of­fi­cials.

"This is a tight net­work of three ma­jor busi­ness­men who are well con­nect­ed not on­ly here but they have ties in Eu­rope and North Amer­i­ca," the source said.

Some of these in­di­vid­u­als, he ex­plained, have been liv­ing the high life pos­ing with fast cars and pri­vate jets all over the world. "They al­so use their dirty mon­ey to spon­sor high-end events in Eu­rope, North Amer­i­ca and even all the way on the oth­er side of the world in New Zealand," he re­vealed.

Though these in­di­vid­u­als have a fleet of le­git­i­mate busi­ness­es lo­cal­ly and abroad, a source de­scribed it as "a per­fect cov­er for them to op­er­ate their ne­far­i­ous ac­tiv­i­ties".

Over the last few months, law en­force­ment sources said these busi­ness­men have been at­tempt­ing to thwart their in­ves­ti­ga­tions by reach­ing out to sev­er­al in­flu­en­tial peo­ple in dif­fer­ent dis­ci­plines.

They said that a par­tic­u­lar busi­ness­man and his busi­ness part­ners are not on­ly "cocky" but well con­nect­ed to sev­er­al in­flu­en­tial peo­ple that "could make any prob­lem they have dis­ap­pear".

In fact, sources in sev­er­al arms of the lo­cal law en­force­ment are­na said that sev­er­al in­flu­en­tial peo­ple had been try­ing to get de­tails about the probe in­volv­ing the busi­ness­men in ques­tion.

"The idea we are get­ting is that they will stop at noth­ing to mash up cer­tain elite units that have been work­ing around the clock to piece to­geth­er this il­le­gal trail. Be­cause of their mon­ey and in­flu­ence, they think they could buy any­one," ex­plained a se­nior po­lice source who has been ac­tive­ly in­volved in look­ing at the busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ties of these par­tic­u­lar in­di­vid­u­als and piec­ing to­geth­er a pa­per trail.

But the of­fi­cers told the Sun­day Guardian that they were hold­ing the in­for­ma­tion "close to their chest" and they would not be swayed by any­one to re­veal any par­tic­u­lars about this far-reach­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

The op­er­a­tion

The scope of their op­er­a­tion on­ly be­came more ap­par­ent af­ter au­thor­i­ties found the co­caine ship­ment aboard the His­pania Spir­it at the At­lantic LNG port in Point Fortin on April 3 around 9 am.

Cus­toms sources had in­formed Guardian Me­dia that sev­en bales of co­caine with a street val­ue of close to $120m were found at­tached to the rud­der of the ship. The rud­der is a big met­al flap at­tached to the tail of the ship that as­sists in the steer­ing of the ves­sel.

The stash was found just be­fore the ves­sel's de­par­ture to Spain. The cap­tain was con­duct­ing safe­ty checks when he saw what ap­peared to be sus­pi­cious pack­ages in the rud­der well area. The cap­tain alert­ed an agent who lat­er con­tact­ed the au­thor­i­ties. Coast Guard divers re­trieved the co­caine, which weighed some 200 kilo­grammes.

Sev­er­al for­eign tankers en­ter the At­lantic port fre­quent­ly to col­lect LNG be­fore leav­ing for their des­ti­na­tions.

Sev­er­al lo­cal law en­force­ment arms have been in­volved in this in­tri­cate in­ves­ti­ga­tion piec­ing to­geth­er bit by bit the trail of these busi­ness­men.

One Cus­toms source re­vealed that based on the in­for­ma­tion they have now ob­tained the drugs were placed un­der the ves­sel while it was wait­ing to en­ter the At­lantic port. "The in­for­ma­tion is that the co­caine came from Venezuela and some­one would have told the per­sons that the ship will be stop­ping there for a while be­fore com­ing to port. Be­cause there were fre­quent se­cu­ri­ty pa­trols in this area of the Gulf of Paria that night, the smug­glers did not have enough time to se­cure the drugs prop­er­ly, " the Cus­toms source re­vealed.

Sources said these well-net­worked busi­ness­men have been able to es­tab­lish con­tact with sev­er­al Venezue­lan un­der­world fig­ures and "through their men of busi­ness, they are able to fa­cil­i­tate these mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar il­lic­it trans­ac­tions".

An in­tel­li­gence source said in this in­stance the co­caine was sup­posed to be tak­en off the His­pania ves­sel, brought in­land and prop­er arrange­ments then made by the in­flu­en­tial busi­ness­men to have this ship­ment sent to Eu­rope.

"We have been mon­i­tor­ing sev­er­al of these car­go ship­ments for a while now. How this works is that in sev­er­al cas­es the drugs are hid­den in parts of heavy end equip­ment. The part they or­dered, would be lat­er opened up through weld­ing, the drugs placed in­side and then they would weld it back shut and say it was the wrong part and then re­turn to sender," said the well-placed in­tel­li­gence source.

He ex­plained that this way, not even snif­fer dogs could de­tect the con­tra­band.

"When the drugs are sent through this medi­um. The "right" part is then re­sent in the same man­ner and the mon­ey for the trans­ac­tion is hid­den in­side a weld­ed com­part­ment for the busi­ness­men to then col­lect ei­ther in US cur­ren­cy, pounds or Eu­ros, de­pend­ing on the coun­try that the ship­ment was sent to."

On­ly last week, the source said, a co­caine drop was made in south Trinidad in the dead of night by a Venezue­lan man and a lo­cal. "The in­for­mant told us that they drove to the lo­ca­tion and dropped off sev­er­al bags of co­caine. The busi­ness­man who wasn't in the coun­try was con­tact­ed by his man of busi­ness via Skype and he con­firmed to him that the stuff was re­al by taste test­ing it while he looked on," said the in­tel­li­gence source.

No com­ment from Grif­fith, PM

Ear­li­er this week, Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith to com­ment on the claims be­ing made. How­ev­er, he said it was an on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion and he did not want to com­ment.

Guardian Me­dia al­so reached out to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, head of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil via text mes­sage on the claims be­ing made. He, how­ev­er, did not re­spond up to late yes­ter­day.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/business ... cf22d6bd49

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Rockram
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Re: Businessmen blocking million-dollar drug probes

Postby Rockram » May 13th, 2019, 6:19 pm

Wonder if this is related to Gulf View Mansion Raids ???

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Re: Businessmen blocking million-dollar drug probes

Postby zoom rader » May 13th, 2019, 6:56 pm

I guess it's not the 99%

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Re: Businessmen blocking million-dollar drug probes

Postby ProtonPowder » May 13th, 2019, 7:28 pm

Rockram wrote:Wonder if this is related to Gulf View Mansion Raids ???

Not saying yes or no, but the drugs were reportedly hidden in heavy machinery, and the star house of the raid's owner owns an industrial supply company, and his neighbour, who was also raided, owns a successful electronics store.

Nice company though, i buy a lot of my tools there.

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Re: Businessmen blocking million-dollar drug probes

Postby rspann » May 13th, 2019, 7:34 pm

Anybody saw the video by wackerman? Remember the names called?

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