Police: Over 200 gang members arrested since start of SoE

Police have arrested more than 200 gang members since the state of emergency (SoE) began on December 30.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) North West and Special Operations Richard Smith gave the update while speaking at a police media briefing at the Police Administration Building on January 20.

Smith said 204 people “from gangs or involved in gang activity” have been arrested with the majority held in the Port of Spain division, while none have been held in Tobago.

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, at a media briefing on December 30, said the SoE was partly fuelled by police intelligence of an impending gang war sparked by two shootings on December 28 and 29 which left six people dead.

At that media briefing, then acting attorney general Stuart Young said there was a concern reprisal killings could lead to more deaths and endanger the public.

“Certain criminal gangs…throughout Trinidad and possibly Tobago, are likely to immediately increase their brazen acts of violence in reprisal shootings, with the expected use of high-powered calibre, high-velocity assault weapons, on a scale so extensive that it threatens people and will endanger public safety.”

On January 20, Smith said police had been using all the laws at their disposal to round up gang members.

“Some have been arrested under anti-gang legislation as well as the SoE. So we are utilising all the legislation as it relates to our investigations in relation to gangs and other persons.”

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Junior Benjamin told Newsday he believed the SoE was addressing the proliferation of gang violence previously seen in TT.

He said that was evident by the downward trend in crimes considered to be characteristics of gang violence.

Benjamin said there had been a reduction in murders in every single station district, except for the Eastern and South Eastern districts.

“When we look at murders for example, we have nearly a 47 per cent decrease with 18 compared to 34 last year. When you look at woundings and shootings, gang violence is one of the main reasons for this particular offence and we have ten this year compared to 41 last year.”

Benjamin said the statistics also showed a decrease, compared to last year, in other related crimes including robberies and kidnappings which had been reduced from 146 to 53 (63 per cent) and ten to four (60 per cent) respectively.

Police also say gangs have been responsible for extorting small-business owners throughout the country.

Smith said six people had been arrested for extortion in the past week, of which two had been charged and one remained in custody while police continued investigating.

He said the police had their first female extortionist in custody and were continuing investigations.

He said of the 61 reports of extortion being investigated, 27 had been solved, giving them a 44 per cent detection rate.

Benjamin added, “Based on the strategies and the opportunities that are open to the police, we are utilising the opportunity to be able to dismantle some of the operations of these gangs, and at the same time to go after the priority offenders.”

He said since the SoE started on December 30, the service had done 1,201 operations and targeted 1,193 priority offenders. It had conducted 7,051 searches and from these, 929 people were arrested.

“We recovered 43 firearms and 1,180 rounds of assorted ammunition was also recovered. This shows a 105 per cent increase in the seizure of firearms, as in the same period last year 21 had been seized. We have seized 152 kilogrammes of marijuana and 725 grammes of cocaine.

“To this point we have a 73 per cent reduction in terms of violent crimes, with 96 violent crimes in 2025 compared to 295 in 2024.”

Benjamin said there was a 55 per cent reduction in property crimes. He said there were 45 burglaries and break-ins compared to 89 in 2024; 41 general larcenies compared to 87 last year; 14 larcenies of motor vehicles compared to 48; and three larcenies of dwelling houses compared to four in 2024. He said there was a grand total of 103 property crimes compared to 228.

“What we’re seeing here is that the police service has used a multi-faceted approach in dealing with crime and the reduction so far is telling us that as we seek to deal with the root causes, the implementation of our effective anti-crime strategies and community engagement with the public, we are seeing a reduction in crime.

He said police hope to see the reduction in crime continue after the SoE, and called on the public to help the police capitalise on the gains made in the fight against crime.

“We want to continue in this vein. We want to ensure that as we continue to engage the public, we encourage people to join us and if you see something, say something.”

Benjamin told Newsday the police were “putting different strategies in place” to deal with the gangs when the SoE ended.

He said the strategies would help identify people, detect offences, detain people and eventually deter them from choosing a life of crime.

“I believe once we implement these anti-crime strategies that we have, and we do it consistently, we are going to see an overall reduction that we'll be able to sustain even after the SoE.

“We want also to look at the lessons learned, and at the same time have goals that will help us to continue to aim for even more (reductions) as we continue along this positive trajectory all to the end of the year.”

Gang arrests by division

Division.................Arrests

Port of Spain...................42

Western...........................30

North Eastern..................38

Central............................10

Northern..........................25

North Central....................5

Eastern..............................7

Southern..........................29

South Western.................18

Tobago..............................0

Murders in police divisions

Division.............2025.....2024

Port of Spain...........4...........8

Southern..................1...........2

Western...................2...........4

Northern..................3...........3

North Central..........0...........7

Central....................1...........5

North Eastern..........2...........3

Tobago....................1...........2

Eastern....................3...........0

South Western.........1...........0