Detention orders issued for Diego Martin, Belmont men

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NATIONAL Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds has issued detention orders for two men under the emergency powers regulations 2024.

The minister’s order says Kevon Bocage, of Tomato Trace, Diego Martin, has been “credibly identified as a trafficker of narcotics and illegal firearms, and intends to traffick high-powered assault rifles to criminal organisations to commit murder and to fuel an ongoing violent war by the said criminal organisations.”

The other order, also issued on January 28, identified Jonathan Caleb Jay Bushell, also known as Jonathan Bushell or Froggy, as someone “credibly identified as a person associated with a criminal organisation known as the Seven/7 Gang (Alien Faction) and who has been recruited, and has the means, to carry out violent retaliatory reprisals involving the use of high powered weapons, pursuant to instructions given by a criminal associate.” Bushell is from Jerningham Street, Belmont.

The detention orders, published as Legal Notice Nos 24 and 25, in the Gazette, were made under Regulation 15. They were published on January 29.

The orders state that Bocage and Bushell will be detained to prevent them from acting in a manner prejudicial to public safety, public order, or the defence of TT.

They will be detained at the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre, Arima.

The detention orders are the latest action under the state of emergency (SoE) declared on December 30 to address rising crime and threats to national security.

Similar detention orders were issued for suspected gang leader Carlvin Lee, also known as Calvin Lee and Tyson, on January 20, and for Shumba James, of Simon Trace, Moruga, on January 12. A third order was issued on January 24, for Joshua Roberts, also known as Jaffa or Jaffar, of Sangre Grande.

James was identified as a credible suspect in various illegal activities, including planning targeted killings of individuals assisting the police service in its investigations.

Lee was “credibly identified as the leader of a known criminal organisation known as the SIXX gang and as the person planning and intending to execute violent retaliatory reprisals or other violent actions involving the use of high-powered weapons and explosives, following an attempted hit on his life and the murder of his associate Trevor Williams on December 28, 2024.”

Lee was arrested on December 30, two days after an attempt was made on his life when gunmen ambushed him and a group of men while leaving the Besson Street Police Station.

Lee, according to police, was the intended target when gunmen waited outside the station on December 28. Trevor Williams, who was accompanying Lee at the time, was killed when the gunmen fired at the group as they left the station after Lee had signed the bail book.

A day later, Cleon Lugin, 37, Derron Calliste, 35, Kambon Omowale, 39, Garet Smart, and Ryan Lessey, 24, were killed in a suspected reprisal attack.

It was after this attack that the SoE was declared.

On January 13, the House of Representatives agreed to the Government’s motion to extend the SoE for three months.