Drug dealer and his spy cameras

Police yesterday removed two illegal surveillance cameras which were placed on top of electricity poles in El Socorro following a tip-off they received that a man, suspected of being a drug dealer, was installing the cameras to keep surveillance on his rivals and the police.

At about 10 am, 40 police officers from the North Eastern Division Task Force and CID, led by Senior Superintendent Surendra Sagramsingh and including Superintendent Nazrudeen Pragg, ASP Michael Sooker, Inspector James and others went to several areas in El Socorro where with assistance of a TTEC crew, the cameras were deactivated and taken down.

During the exercise, officers also went to the home of the reputed drug lord and removed two cameras from the property.

The drug dealer was not home at the time but a female relative was on hand when the officers arrived. In all, eight surveillance cameras were found at the top of electricity poles in several areas in El Socorro.

Other cameras were found but because of muddy conditions left behind by major flooding last week, the police and TTEC officials are expected to return today to remove the rest of the cameras.

Police believe the drug dealer used this network of surveillance cameras to spy on rival drug dealers and also to monitor the movement of police officers on patrol.

Snr Supt Sagramsingh said when he received information about the cameras, he contacted TTEC General Manager Kelvin Ramsook who informed him that it was illegal for anyone to place cameras on TTEC poles.

Sagramsingh later checked with the Police Service’s CCTV Unit to get a location of all police-owned cameras in the El Socorro area so as not to deactivate the wrong cameras. TTEC manager Ramsook later told Newsday the utility will not tolerate the illegal use of its equipment, in this case, electricity poles.

ACP Surujdeen Persad yesterday commended members of the public who provided information to police which led to the removal of the surveillance cameras. Up to press time, it was not known if the police and/or TTEC would be pursuing charges against the reputed drug dealer for mounting the cameras on the TTEC poles.