Security personnel launching big anti-crime operation Monday

Trinidad and Tobago is launching an air and land anti-crime operation on Monday involving police and soldiers. The operation is targeting illegal arms and ammunition

Media reports say Minister of National Security Brigadier John Sandy met with security personnel for several hours Saturday to finalise the plans. 

Among stakeholders at the meeting were Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs, Chief of Defence Staff Roland Maunday, Director of the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT), Albert Griffith and a senior official from the Customs and Excise Department, the reports say.

The SUNDAY NEWSDAY said its sources have said helicopters will begin patrols Monday morning in areas designated as crime hot spot while police and soldiers will carry out patrols in selected areas throughout the country.

In addition the Coast Guard and Customs and Excise officers will be keeping a keen eye on all ports of entry.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who chairs the National Security Council, has expressed deep concern over the escalating crime in the country.

"We have been bombarded with headlines and stories about the state of criminal activity. The murder toll has continued to climb on a daily basis as though it were the countdown to surpass last year’s tally which had begun in earnest," she told the House of Representatives on Friday.

"The almost daily murder toll is a stark reminder of the critical and harsh reality of our time. I sat on the Opposition Benches after the former administration assumed office in 2001, we looked helplessly and in despair, as the murder toll consistently rose each year from a low of 172 into 2002, to as high as 547 in 2008 and thereafter," she added.

She has also expressed alarm over the entry of illegal weapons into the country and has asked the law enforcement agencies to get more aggressive in their of vessels that could be bringing such items into the country.

Statistics show that almost all the murders committed in Trinidad and Tobago are carried out with the use of illegal arms and ammunition, with most imported from neighbouring Venezuela by people involved in gangs and in the drug trade.

The direct assault on crime is only one part of efforts to end the problem. Sandy is also introducing a mentoring program, which will be launched on April 11 by former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

It involves persons who have achieved success in their respective communities working alongside young persons to mould them into upright citizens.