Major arms find in Trinidad & Tobago frays nerves
By Bert Wilkinson
The discovery of two fairly
large shipments of high powered
rifles and other weapons,
along with gun accessories and
hundreds of rounds of assorted
ammunition in Trinidad in the
past week, have pushed authorities
to suggest that an unidentified
criminal or terrorist
group is organizing to create
mayhem in the republic.
With the memories from the
July 1990 bloody coup attempt
still fresh in the minds of local
politicians and enforcement
officials, the policing community
and cabinet say they are
taking the latest discoveries
seriously and think the planning
by the perpetrators might
not have much to do with
criminal gangs or ordinary law
breakers. More than 20 people
were killed in the botched
attempt by a Black Muslim
group, parts of the commercial
city were burned and looted
and as the coup makers
stormed parliament, the local
television stations and other
state institutions.
For one, Minister of Security,
Fitz Hinds thinks that that
there could be “a more sinister,
Caribbean L 18 ife, MAY 7-13, 2021
deeper and darker plot to harm
the people of this country,”
while Lyle Alexander, the head
of the local port authority told
the local Newsday newspaper
that “we all as citizens have to
be concerned,” about the latest
developments.
One of the shipments was
intercepted at the main Piarco
International Airport while the
second was spotted via electronic
scanner at a warehouse
in Couva District, outside the
capital, Port of Spain in the
past week.
Trinidad has been on a
heightened security posture for
years as gangland violence has
ravaged the country. The twinisland
nation with Tobago has
averaged more than 450 murders
annually in the past decade,
much of it linked to gangland
warfare, to the drug trade
and robberies among other
violent crimes. Police recorded
more than 520 killings last
year, the second highest on
record after 550 in 2008. The
2018 figure had also crossed
the dreaded and depressing 500
mark.
Minister Hinds says that
authorities are particularly
worried this time around as
the cache does not appear to
be the types used in ordinary
robberies.
“It doesn’t appear as though
that was anything in terms of
settling gang affairs because
those things have happened
before, because the quantity
and nature of the things that
were found on those two occasions
demonstrate that there
might be, as the police have
explained, a more sinister,
deeper and darker motives,” he
told the Guardian newspaper.
“I am not a police officer and
they assured me they are investigating
it because surely the
people of T&T would want to
know who would want to accumulate
that kind of weaponry,
but we know that the difference
between those people in
their illegality and our forces,
is the discipline and the training
and the moral posture that
we stand on to do what is right
in the protection of the people
of T&T.”
Part of the reason officials
are very worried this time has
to do with the assortment of
weapons, ammunition, accessories
and police equipment
unearthed in the discoveries.
These included police sirens,
blue flashing lights, bullet
proof vests, magazine holders,
parts for an AR-15 rifle, the
favored types for mass killings
in the US, bullets for a large
range of weapons, a rifle with
night vision equipment loved
by assassins and equipment to
convert hand guns into rapid
firing systems like rifles.
Two arrests have been made.
In both cases, addresses for
senders and receivers were listed
on its shipped packages and
police are looking for a male
who had turned up to collect
one of the shipments but left
before he was nabbed.
A Real Avid kit for building and customizing AR-15 rifl es is
displayed at Firearms Unknown, a gun store in Oceanside,
California, U.S., April 12, 2021. REUTERS/Bing Guan
Book Description
Following the tumultuous and unexpected life of Zenaida Katzen,
Ira Simmonds’ biography weaves disparate threads from Russia,
China, Chile, France, and St. Kitts-Nevis into a vibrant tapestry
revealing a surprising and exceptional woman. Stepping outside
of the spinster-teacher archetype, Katzen’s story is one of a
complicated, fiercely independent woman whose decades of
unwavering dedication and commitment to the education of
children across the globe belie an intriguing, unpredictable and, at
times, inexplicable personal life.
Author Bio
Born on the Caribbean island of
Nevis, Ira Simmonds received a B.A.
in French from St. Francis College,
Brooklyn, New York and M.A. and
M.Ed. degrees from Teachers
College, Columbia University, NY, NY.
After a ten-year stint as House
Manager at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln
Center for the Performing Arts in
NYC, he spent the next twenty-five
years in New York City Public
Schools as a teacher, Assistant
Principal and Acting Principal. He
currently works as an educational
consultant.
Available in paperback and eBook format
at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
/Amazon.com
/Amazon.ca
