Port of Spain scrapyard owner charged, meat shop shut down

THE OWNER of an unlicensed scrap metal yard in Port of Spain and an adjoining meat shop was charged on Monday with unlawful possession and buying stolen items after manhole covers and copper were seized from his premises.

While he was being charged, a group of health inspectors visited his meat shop, operating under VP Trading Ltd, which they closed indefinitely allegedly because of unsanitary conditions and for selling food which the inspectors considered "unfit for human consumption."

Workers, police said, were also operating without food badges.

Vejai Ramlakhan, 57, was arrested on Saturday after a team of city police officers and members of its task force, led by Supt Charles and acting Sgt Greene, executed a search warrant for arms and ammunition at 25 George St.

No weapons or ammunition were found. However, manhole covers belonging to the city, and the copper were found.

Ramlakhan was granted and paid $50,000 for station bail before appearing in court virtually on Monday. He will reappear on July 12.

While before the court, police returned to the scrapyard with another search warrant.

Simultaneously, a team of health inspectors toured the adjacent meat shop and eventually shut it down, taking with them hundreds of pounds of several varieties of meat.

The 12 entries of seized meat included 52 unplucked whole chickens, 300 pounds of frozen goat "exposed in freezer," and nearly 700 lbs of pig tail in 12 buckets.

Newsday was present during Monday's exercise, when a worker at the meat shop was heard explaining to a health inspector that a bucket of what appeared to be spoiled meat was not for sale, and was to be discarded.

"But the customer bound to know its not good," the worker was heard saying. "It's not for sale. They wouldn't buy that."

Charles told Newsday the condition of the meat shop was "beyond unsanitary," and was infested with rodent droppings and other animal faeces.

He said he worries the shop would have gone unchecked had the team not raided the scrapyard on Saturday.

"You know what is the alarming thing? There is a public health inspector supposed to be visiting there at least twice a week. That means the public health inspectors were not doing their work.

“It's only because the police intervened on Saturday and observed what was going on, and I had a conversation with the Chief Public Health Inspector and let them know we need to do an exercise because there are several public health issues that you all have to address there.

"They need to do a robust check on all these places."

Charles said he observed unsanitary conditions at meat and poultry shops in the capital is widespread.

"The corporation has a big (staff of) public health inspectors and all of them are assigned an area." He said it was inexcusable for the meat shop’s staff to have been operating for so long without food badges.