Hinds: Cops investigating $4.5b legal gun trade

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds says the police are investigating the legal gun trade in Trinidad and Tobago, which amounts to about $4.5 billion.

Speaking at the passing-out parade of batch one of 2022 at the Police Academy, St James Barracks on Wednesday, he said organised crime contributed to the “unwanted ills” in society, making crime a business and generating large income streams mostly from drug trafficking and extortion.

“For example, and take note, even in the trade of legal guns, which we recently experienced in TT, and which we estimate to have generated about $4.5 billion worth of business, was carried on in this country, in our view, with little or no regard to considerations of national security.

“A serious matter indeed that is gaining the attention of law enforcement.”

He also gave crime-fighting statistics, saying the police recovered 467 illegal firearms and over 15,000 rounds of ammunition from June 2023 to the present, executed 319 warrants and, over the last nine months, arrested 132 people in connection with home invasions.

“The police have responded by training and putting gang units in place and a special team to deal with home invasions. They have responded by increasing active directed patrols strategically placed to intercept these criminals, in many cases when they are approaching or exiting their crime scene.”

He said the TTPS Financial Investigations Branch completed 18 case seizure investigations, six cash-for-feature applications and 14 cash detention orders amounting to $7.5 million. These were in the courts on matters relating to money laundering, embezzlement, fraud, trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances, cross-border smuggling, and illicit trafficking.

Hinds added that in the last year, the police service got 192 more body cameras, and hundreds of officers underwent specialised training in investigating organised criminal anti-gang operations, trauma-informed care for law enforcement officers, cybercrime and security awareness, international protection of refugees sensitisation and more.

Speaking to the media after the parade, he said he was proud of the 97 new officers who entered the service. He said they were joining an organisation that may appear to be “very challenged” at times but had many successes.

“I am more than happy to know 97 other citizens have decided not to just talk, not to just criticise but to come forward and take an oath and say, 'I will stand along with Minister Hinds and the other people who have done that in defence of the Constitution and the law and the people of TT.'”