Family of Las Cuevas fisherman supected killed in US strike report him 'missing'

The family of missing Las Cuevas fisherman Chad Joseph, 26, suspected to have been one of the two Trinidadians killed in a United States military strike operation in the Caribbean in October, has reported him missing to the police.

According to a police report, Joseph’s relative reported him missing on November 1 at the Maracas Bay police station.

Joseph, of Salvary Lane, St. Michael’s Village, Las Cuevas, has been missing since April 25. He and Rishi Samaroo are believed to have been killed in the October 14 strike as part of a US-led operation targeting narcotics trafficking.

The relative reported to officers that she last spoke to Joseph on the morning of April 25. He said he was going fishing and never returned. The relative told investigators she last saw him at her Las Cuevas home.

At a post-Cabinet media briefing on October 30, Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers said there was no evidence to suggest the men were killed in a strike.

“When the Government says there is no evidence to suggest that these persons were killed by a strike pursuant to military intervention, we say that because it is a fact,” he said. “There is no evidence to suggest that they were killed by a military strike.”

Sobers said investigations into the incident are ongoing and confirmed that the strike occurred beyond the country’s national waters.

He also said he intended to personally contact the Minister of Homeland Security and the Commissioner of Police to assist Samaroo’s relatives, who reported difficulty filing a missing person’s report at the Barataria Police Station.

Sobers said the strikes were part of a US military operation taking place in international waters.

“If the strikes occurred within national waters, then the US would have to share information with Trinidad and Tobago. These are not strikes that are occurring within our territorial waters, nor are they strikes that are occurring within our EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone).”