T&T gets 6 new patrol boats to fight drug trade

Trinidad and Tobago took delivery of six fast patrol boats Saturday and three 90-metre vessels, costing over TT$2 billion, are expected by July. The six new vessels have already been deployed at Galeota, Cedros, Tobago and Staubles Bay.

Together they will give the country's Coast Guard the tools to combat and significantly reduce the drugs and illegal arms trade that have infiltrated the country.

Speaking at a ceremony to welcome the six 30-foot Australian vessels, Prime Minister Patrick Manning admitted that crime is the country’s biggest problem.

Check statistics on the new naval vessels
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He said a lot of people are profiting from it and noted that the majority of crimes - between 50 and 60 per cent - are related to cocaine and illegal arms coming into the country.

"If we are to eliminate and stem the importation of cocaine and the illegal arms trade in the country, then we will be in a position to reduce crime by at least 50 per cent," he said.

The prime minister said the enhanced naval fleet would put the country in a position to confront the drug and arms trade.

"I confidently expect that from here on in we are going to begin to impact significantly on that drug trade and we will begin to see a significant reduction in the levels of crime that the people of Trinidad and Tobago are experiencing and the preservation of life, not just for citizens but for visitors to our shores,” Manning said.

“That trade makes so much money, my dear friends that elsewhere in the world, it is reported that the drug dealers no longer count money, they weigh it. And, it tells you of the quantity of money associated with the trade and why the trade has been sustainable, because of those who believe that it is a proper way to exist by profiting off of that trade,” he said.

Manning also praised National Security Minister, Martin Joseph.

"Permit me, my dear friends, to congratulate specially this evening the Minister of National, Security, the Honourable Martin Joseph. Because you see, it is easy to condemn, especially by those who have no idea of what it involves in the management of a Ministry of National Security.

“And in the face of all kinds of odds and against the slings and arrows of all kinds of people, the Minister of National Security has persevered to the point where, today, we are able to participate in this ceremony and to look forward from henceforth to a better and newer and brighter day.

"I congratulate the Minister of National Security at this time.”