[Updated] Bajan AG seeks info on abduction of Trinidad and Tobago arms dealer

The abduction of a TT arms dealer from Barbados who was returned to this country to face criminal charges of possession of grenades and automatic weapons has sparked high-level intervention by Bajan authorities.

Barbados Attorney General Dale Marshall told Bajan media he had asked for a report from Barbados' Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce on the matter.

"I am aware of the decision of the Trinidad and Tobago High Court justice and I have requested a report on the matter from the CoP. Until then, I can make no useful comment," Marshall is quoted as saying in two media reports published on Tuesday.

Newsday tried to contact Marshall and Boyce by phone on Wednesday, but there has been no response to messages seeking further information.

In a report published by the Barbados Today newspaper, leading criminal lawyer Andrew Pilgrim, KC, said the claims of Barbados police being involved in the abduction needed to be investigated.

"On the face of it, I think the police ought to give an account of their involvement in the matter to say that they were not involved. If they were involved, who commanded them to do so? Let them account for it because a Trinidad court is saying that Barbadian police facilitated this kidnapping.

"I am concerned about it because I think it represents a serious, serious infringement of the rights of a Caricom citizen in our country. If it happened as outlined in the judgement of the case, it means that Barbados would have had to play a role in it, because I don't believe a Trinidad defence force plane could come and land at Grantley Adams (airport), and police in Barbados go and pick up a person, deliver him to the Trinidad police, put him on a plane and send him to Trinidad and lock him up without people here knowing what's going on. Somebody here has got to account for it," he was quoted as saying.

Details of the abduction of Brent Thomas, 61, by members of the Barbados Royal Police Force are contained in the April 25 judgment of TT High Court judge Devindra Rampersad.

Thomas – who has been selling firearms for over two decades, primarily to the state agencies, including the police, defence force, prison and other national-security agencies – became the subject of a criminal investigation after police began probing allegations that he was in possession of and was selling automatic weapons, both prohibited by the Fireams Act.

The judge found the action of the police was unlawful and struck down the search warrants, ordered a permanent stay of the criminal charges, and called on the Commissioner of Police to investigate the officers' conduct.

Lawyers representing the Attorney General had conceded in the hearing that the return of Thomas from Barbados to TT was unlawful and without regard to the extradition process provided for by the Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act Chapter 12:04.

A significant part of the judge's 97-page ruling referred to events which took place in Barbados.

In reciting the facts, the judge said around 3 am on October 5, 2022, Thomas was asleep in his hotel in Barbados when he was "jolted awake by shouts of 'Police,' and banging on his hotel door."

Thomas said a large group of men dressed in black and armed with guns entered the room, asked for his ID card and handcuffed him. He was subsequently taken to the Grantley Adams Airport, handed over to TT police officers and returned to Piarco.

Thomas said an aircraft belonging to the TT Defence Force had been used to transport him. But Minister in the Officer of the Prime Minister Stuart Young told Parliament on April 28 that the aircraft belonged to the Regional Security System, based in Barbados.

There was no reply to an e-mail sent to Commodore Errington Shurland, executive director of the RSS, seeking clarity on how an RSS aeroplane became involved in the police operation. TT is not a member of the RSS, which was established in 1982 to respond to security threats in the region.

The Police Complaints Authority has opened an independent investigation into the conduct of police assigned to the Professional Standards Bureau.

On May 1, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, in a statement broadcast on state television station TTT, said no government official was involved in the police operation against Thomas, and noted that the State will appeal the case.

In a statement on Wednesday, political leader of the National Transformation Alliance and former CoP Gary Griffith criticised Hinds's statement, saying the media were given no opportunity to ask about Thomas's abduction, the use of illegal warrants and the use of a military aircraft to bring Thomas back to TT.