New unit tackles organised crime

The newly launched Organised Crime Intelligence Unit (OCIU) of the Police Service, will combat and suppress serious organised crime in TT said the National Security Ministry in a statement yesterday.

The OCIU, launched last Friday, merges the Organised Crime Narcotics and Firearms Bureau and the Criminal Gang and Intelligence Unit.

The new unit’s remit is to pursue, target, dismantle, disrupt and prosecute organised criminal groups and organised criminal networks in TT. The OCIU will also collaborate with other units within the Police Service, the TT Defence Force, Financial Intelligence Unit, Financial Investigations Bureau and the Transnational Organised Crime Unit.

Speaking at the unit’s launch, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon said the OCIU would produce a marked difference in the way the police investigated and detected organised crime.

The ministry said the new unit would have a more robust intelligence-gathering and intelligence-led policing system. Noting the crime detection rate had increased from 18 per cent in 2011 to 31 per cent to date, the ministry said the operations of the OCIU should see that rate increase even further over time.