Dillon liaising with UK authorities on Isis article

Minister of National Security Brigadier Edmund Dillon is liaising with British authorities to ascertain how reliable the information is in a newspaper article published in the United Kingdom Express headlined : Holiday Warning: ISIS training jihadis in Caribbean tourist hotspots to target Westerners.

The article alleges that Islamic State is training jihadis in Trinidad and Tobago to target westeners.

Dillon said he had not yet read the article but was informed that the article exists and he was now discussing the matter with the British authorities with a view to finding out where the information came from and how reliable it was.

He said he will have more to say on the matter at a later date.

The article which was written by Rebecca Perring and published on August 19 was updated yesterday.

Sources revealed yesterday that intelligence gathering has not unearthed any evidence of people from this country, who went to Syria to fight for ISIS, quietly returning to the country. Sources said there are in fact people who had intentions of going to Syria but only made it as far as Turkey and returned to this country.

However according to the article in the UK Express “THE barbaric Islamic State (ISIS) will train jihadis in Caribbean tourist hotspots when fighters are forced to return home from Syria and Iraq where the terror cult has been smashed”.

The article continues “Fears are growing Western holiday makers will be targeted in terror attacks by depraved terrorists who have travelled back to Trinidad and Tobago from the beaten caliphate”.

So much so, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) is currently taking measures to prevent fighters from returning to the islands, located southeastern from the United States, into a platform from which terrorist attacks can be organised”.

The article also stated that when quizzed over the risk of jihadis returning, Minister of National Security of Trinidad and Tobago at the CARICOM replied: “It is not a matter of yes but when.”

The warning comes amid fears fighters will be able to travel between most of the Caribbean islands without a visa, meaning reaching the Bahamas would leave any terrorist just a step away from Florida.

The article then quotes John Estrada, a former US ambassador to TT, who warned militants from TT have been well received by ISIS.

Describing the islands as the terror group’s “unthinking seedbed”, he told New York Times: “Per capita, Trinidad has the greatest number of foreign fighters from the Western Hemisphere who have joined the Islamic State.”

“Trinidadians do very well with ISIL.

“They are high up in the ranks, they are very respected and they are English-speaking. ISIL have used them for propaganda to spread their message through the Caribbean. ”

According to the Caribbean Crime and Security Implementation Agency (Impacs), more than 200 people have travelled from the Caribbean in recent years to join ISIS.