PASTOR Ian Albert Ezekiel Brown says he is a spy for the Strategic Services Agency (SSA).
In an exclusive interview with the Express, yesterday, in Port of Spain, Brown, 67, also confirmed that 100 police officers, on Saturday, raided his Arima home and his churches-the Jerusalem Bride (JB Church) in Malabar, Arima, and the Eden Restored Church in Caratal.
He said he is known as 'The Phantom' and 'the ghost who walks' in the SSA and he was only now breaking his silence because his 'cover' was blown by the police.
Brown said he believes the SSA will go 'dark' because a list of 'righteous' people will be dismissed from the agency.
He claimed further that these actions are being done to protect criminality and a Government official.
He said SSA director Major Roger Best was sent on administrative leave because he was working on treating with 'crookedness' in the SSA.
Who is Brown?Brown said, in 1982, he was employed at the Ministry of Works' National Secondary Roads Construction Company Ltd where he met a German named Armin Kaub who trusted him and trained him to be a spy.
In 1984, he pursued Bible studies at the West Indies School of Theology in St Joseph and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Theology, following which he became a pastor in 1986.
He opened his first church at Pinto Road, Arima. He also lectured at Caribbean Mission Bible school and was one of their vice-principals.
Brown said he has always been a spy and provided intelligence to the former Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT) after he was contracted by the National Security Ministry for a project in Macqueripe.
He said he provided intelligence reports for free.
He said he only began to receive a stipend about five years ago.
He was also made a Special Reserve Police (SRP) officer and used a rental car, paid for by National Security, to do his 'spy work'.
As of May 25, 2023, he came on the SSA payroll as a 'service provider'.
'I'm a spy, I'm a police officer as well. 10702. That is my regimental number,' he said.
Brown said his church is not a cult and he is also an author and bona fide bishop.
Police raidBrown said about 70 police officers were deployed to search three plots of land in Caratal where one of his churches is located and where crops are planted for charity.
He said about 30 officers raided his Arima home at the same time.
Brown said the officers arrived at 7.30 a.m. at his home and left at 12.30 p.m.
He said he, his wife and nine children live with him.
He has two sons whose wives also live on the same property and nine adopted daughters.
He said he was not surprised when the police came.
'I was not surprised...I have covert ways of dressing. I was leaving with one of my gears, a Rasta wig because my neighbours do not know what I am except a pastor and a bishop,' he said.
'When they came some were over the fence already and I was reversing my vehicle to go on one of my beats and when I saw them coming, hurling themselves over the fence, I stopped, put my hand outside the window and said 'Stop! Stop! I said I'll come out and open the gate,' he said.
'When I came out, they said 'take that off yuh head! Take it off! So what the neighbours never saw they saw for the first time, Pastor Brown looking like a Rasta,' he said, adding that the police were 'forceful and violent' and pointed guns at him.
'I was frisked, I was made to spread my legs apart, spread out like an eagle and patted down over and over again,' he said.
A team of officers and a 'sniffer dog' swept his home and seized files, confidential notes and other items he may not be aware of because he was not allowed to view when they searched his large office.
His family members were made to stand in the yard whilst the raid was conducted, Brown said.
He said they also searched about ten vehicles in the yard, some of which belong to clients of his son who is a straightener and painter.
Asked why he thought this happened, Brown responded: 'Because I am the threat to the Government, presently, and not the director.'
Best, he claimed, is one of nine elders in his church.
'(Best) met me as a pastor, he did not know I was an informant. He discovered that eventually,' he said.
He said he was hired because he can get information that no one can, and was brought in to weed out the 'crooks' in the SSA.
Questioned about what information he got, he said there was information on a Government official and ties to the underworld.
Church members hiredQuestioned on whether members of his church were employed in the SSA, Brown said: 'Yes, I wouldn't lie to you. I'll tell you the truth. Yes he (Best) did hire a few people.'
Brown said about five church members were hired, including his son whom he said worked at the agency before he was brought in last year formally.
He said the five church members were vetted before hiring and some underwent polygraph testing.
Brown said five people were and that caused chaos.
These church members, he said, will be removed from the SSA on the basis that they were hired illegally.
'The reason why they are trying to get these people out is so that they will not have anybody to confuse their way forward in keeping a covert way of managing what they call the explosion of the crime,' he said.
'Because if you want to know why so many millions is pumped into an agency like that and there is so little crime detection, I was brought in to find out why, because I was able to find whom and who in the agency (were) the rats. They put the noose around some of their necks,' he continued.
Brown reiterated he was hired to deal with corruption as it relates to the SSA.
'It is hijacked from the inside to guarantee the narrative concerning crime and criminals that comes to the present Commissioner of Police is always deflated,' he said.
Brown confirmed that he sat in high-level national security meetings and had access to sensitive information.
Asked if he had a particular squad in the SSA, Brown said two service providers, who are also church members, were assigned to him and they were paid a stipend on contract to provide information and intelligence at his request.
WarningBrown claimed there are going to be major changes at the SSA from today.
'I want this country to know that from tomorrow, Monday, March 10, 2024 our country is going dark. The eyes that used to see brightly will not be allowed to see again where the corruption and crime is in this country,' he said.
He said hand-picked people will fill the three top posts of Director and Deputies.
Asked if he believes he will be charged with anything, Brown said he may be charged with divulging secret information.
He said his focus was on alleged corruption in the SSA.
Said Brown, 'I am not wimpy as a pastor, I'm a trained police officer and I'm different...I'm almost 70, I've lived a full life, I've written 12 books, if they want me to continue to work in the agency, I will continue in service to country.'
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'THE GHOST WHO WALKS': Pastor Ian Albert Ezekiel Brown
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