Criminals running "empires" from jail: T&T Gov't

A Trinidad and Tobago cabinet minister told the House of Representatives Friday gang leaders continue to run their organisations from prisons.

Minister in the Ministry of National Security Donna Cox said crime bosses use cellphones to conduct their affairs, which include executing rivals, money laundering and other crimes including kidnappings.

Cox told the House that between January 2008 and November 2009, authorities confiscated 1,143 cellphones while conducting hundreds of searches in the country's seven prisons and the Youth Training Centre (YTC).

Cox was speaking on a bill that amends local prison rules to allow more searches at prisons to prevent contraband, including cellphones from reaching prisoners.

She said current rules allow searches to be conducted by the prison superintendent or other officers of higher rank. Only 14 officers currently have the authority to conduct searches under this rule.

Cox said the current climate "warrants that we take immediate action in two critical aspects of the rules...to deal with the issue of contraband in prisons.”

She said the government has evidence to suggests "that a few rogue officers are playing a major role in facilitating the trafficking of cellphones among the prison population.”

She added that visitors and family members also attempt to smuggle phones into prisons and had even thrown them over the walls into prisons.

“There have also been occasions whereby prisons officers have been caught while reporting for duty, attempting to smuggle in cellphones and cellphone chargers and other items of contraband,” Cox added.

She said, “Phones have also been seized that possess camera, Internet, voice, video recording capabilities which can be transmitted to other phones and electronic devices anywhere."