‘Pushback’ on crime coming

NATIONAL Security Minister Stuart Young has said TT will see in the coming months a major “pushback” on crime.

At a press conference in Temple Court on Abercromby Street, Port of Spain, Young said several operations will be carried out which will include the police, the Defence Force (TTDF) and all other arms of the National Security Ministry, to combat gang activity and crime. He warned it will come at a minor inconvenience to law-abiding citizens. “I asked for the full co-operation and participation of our law enforcement agencies and other arms of national security to launch these operations to push back hard at the criminal element,” Young said. “We understand and appreciate that the majority of people in these areas are law-abiding citizens and there will be some level of inconvenience, but I assure them that we would be doing this for the purpose of attempting to make their communities safer and more secure.

“And to the criminal element, I make absolutely no apology for the inconvenience they will face and the behaviour they will face in the push back being done in the coming weeks and months.”

While he did not name exact locations where the operations will take place, Young hinted that they would be in areas where gang activity has become “commonplace.”

Young commended the police for their work in the past few months, and attributed their recent successes to intelligence-driven investigations and operations, which he said would continue.