DSS supporters OK with losing investments

In this November 11  file photo, members of the Drugs Sou Sou (DSS) protest outside the  Diplomatic Centre and home of the Prime Minister residence on St Ann's Road in Port of Spain - SUREASH CHOLAI
In this November 11 file photo, members of the Drugs Sou Sou (DSS) protest outside the Diplomatic Centre and home of the Prime Minister residence on St Ann's Road in Port of Spain - SUREASH CHOLAI

DSS investors say they were prepared to lose their money if the system crashed, but not through it being seized by police in an ongoing investigation.

Speaking at a candlelight vigil on Wednesday, DSS member Jaytee Brooks said it was not fair that the police took the money. She and others are calling for its return.

DSS operations were forcibly put on pause after police raided DSS head Kerron Clarke's La Horquetta home last month and seized $6.4 million, which they said were the proceeds of crime and could be detained for three months.

The seizure came weeks after $22 million was seized and returned within hours. This angered Police Commissioner Gary Griffith and led to the suspension of four officers and the transfer of 11 others. The Prime Minister, as head of the National Security Council, later labelled DSS a cancer that needed the intervention of police officers from Barbados and the UK.

Brooks said, “We are not prepared to lose our money to the Government of TT. If something happens and it crash, we would have accepted that, because we know it is a risk.

"But for the security minister to come and just seize our money, and blaming it on Kerron when they are fully aware that we put our money there, the investors think it is not fair, it is not right.

"Up to this present time no one can give us a proper answer as to why this was done. So we are out here protesting as much as we can, giving vigil as much as we can, because we know that God is the boss and he is in control.”

Brooks said DSS is not a pyramid scheme but a modernisation of the traditional sou-sou. On Tuesday, the Open Bible Church and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the West Indies (PAWI) said they were advising their members not to take part in the schemes.

Asked about this, Brooks said: “Why should they take up collection? We are investing and we are getting returns. I wonder if their congregation is not a scheme, because when they take up a collection, they say is for God, but they are driving the biggest cars, living in the biggest houses, and we have to beg them for a drop.

"Are they taking the collection and calling God in the night and giving God the collection?”

DSS members plan to continue their vigil until the three-month detention period ends.

Wednesday night’s vigil was the second for the week.

A planned motorcade for November 7 was cancelled after police found out and put a stop to it, saying the organisers needed to get permission. DSS investors then applied for and were given permission for a motorcade on November 21.

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"DSS supporters OK with losing investments"

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