High Court freezes Warner's assets in quarrying probe

A CRIMINAL investigation into allegations of illegal quarrying and processing aggregate without a mining licence has taken a dramatic turn, as the police have obtained restraint orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act to freeze the assets of two companies of the Warner Group.

Senior police familiar with the case said the ex-parte orders were made on August 21 by a judge of the High Court, criminal division, and later served on Warns Quarry Co Ltd and Pres-T-Con 2021 Ltd.

On August 21, five Warner Group companies and 12 people, including its founder, Allan Warner, a close friend of the Prime Minister, tried unsuccessfully to get a civil judge to order the police to vacate its aggegate wash plant at Moonan Road, off Agua Santa Road, Wallerfield, owned by the Warner Group and grant the company access to heavy machinery that had been seized during a probe into illegal mining.

In his ruling, Justice Frank Seepersad said he would allow the police “reasonable time” to complete their investigation and dismissed the application seeking injunctive relief.

Officers assigned to the Financial Investigations Branch, Multi-Agency Task Force (MATF) are liaising with acting Director of Public Prosecutions Joan Honore-Paul in one of the more detailed investigations into illegal quarrying in recent times.

According to legal sources, a restraint order is a preventive measure used by the investigating authorities to support a confiscation order. Restraint orders, granted under the Proceeds of Crime Act, allow an investigator or prosecuting authority the right to restrain the assets of someone under suspicion of investigation even before the person is charged.

Such an order prohibits the person from dealing with the property in question, and also applies to third parties who hold property in which a suspect or defendant is considered to have an interest.

The Warners, in their constitutional motion, argued that the police action has also deprived them of their constitutional right to enjoyment of their property, and while they acknowledge the police service has the responsibility to investigate crime, it cannot justify the “inordinate delay in its investigations.”

They allege malice in the police investigations, claiming senior police officers made “blatant and outrageous statements” that “they will cripple all of our operations.”

The lawsuit said two of Warner’s companies – Warner Construction and Sanitation Co Ltd and Pres-T-Con 2021 Ltd – “are engaged in several government contracts for the supply of construction services.”

The merits of those claims will be determined when the constitutional motion is heard before the High Court.

A senior officer familiar with the Warner investigations said using the Proceeds of Crime Act to follow the money goes beyond the arrest of the truck drivers and excavator operators who are usually caught red-handed during illegal quarry busts.

Police: Illegal quarrying linked to violent crime

Acting ACP Curt Simon, head of the White-Collar Crime Division, in an interview with Newsday on August 24, while not commenting on specific developments in the Warner investigation, said, “Those who are involved in illegal quarrying, be warned: the TTPS is not going to sit by and allow such activity to occur without investigations. There are tools with the criminal law we are going to use.”

Simon said the illegal quarrying industry was a “lucrative one” and the police have found “linkages to heavy blue-collar crimes.” He said while the offence interferes with the financial coffers, it also interferes with the safety and security of communities.

He said police have seen a trend of violent crime associated with illegal quarrying and “linkages of illegal quarrying to criminal gangs” which by their very nature and characteristics bring a level of violence.

“The concern is not only for the financial loss to the State, but the harm, injury and death it brings,” he said.

Police in the Eastern Division claim over 20 murders in the past few years have been linked to illegal quarrying activity stretching from Valencia to Matura.

“Our mandate is to provide security and safety to all,” Simon said, adding that the police “are not going to surrender that mandate.”

On the issue of complicit law-enforcement officers being paid to turn a blind eye to illegal quarrying, Simon said in any instance where police “unearth and find culpability, wherever that may be, they will feel the full brunt of the law.”

Warner company gets new mining licence

Even as Warner was before the court on a criminal charge, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries granted his other son, Keon Warner, and Warns Quarry a temporary mining operating licence on June 18 – a processing licence to extract material from 16.66 hectares of state lands at Moonan Road, Agua Santa, Wallerfield.

The application for the licence was made on June 5, more than a month after the police had shut down the mining plant.

According to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Energy, the conditional permission was granted because: “Given the importance and critical role played by Warns Quarry Co Ltd with respect to the supply of sand and gravel aggregate for highway construction and for the local market, you are conditionally authorised to undertake mineral processing operations, pending the processing of your application for Processing Licence. This permission is valid until December 31, 2025.”

On May 20, Commissioner of State Lands Paula Drakes granted Warns Quarry permission to occupy and carry out industrial activities at the Wallerfield site. That agreement was signed by Allan Warner and Keon Warner, both directors of the company.

Charges in the case

Warner, 74, of Tower 2, Tragarete Road, Woodbrook, One Woodbrook Place, was charged with processing aggregate without a licence on July 2.

On July 4, Warner was identified as the owner of an aggregate mining plant at Moonan Road, Wallerfield, before he was formally charged with the summary offence in contravention of Section 45 (1) (a) of the Minerals Act. The offence carries a penalty of a $500,000 fine and five years in prison.

In May, police assigned to the MATF shut down a multi-million-dollar aggregate processing plant with some of the latest modern machinery, including two multi-million-dollar excavators, at a wash plant owned by Warner. Police have been stationed at the wash plant since the bust on May 2.

Warner’s son Aluko Ato Warner, also of One Woodbrook Place; Robert Wilson, of Todds Road; Reuben Maprangala, of Champs Fleurs; Ricky Joseph, of New Grant; Corey Charles, of Diego Martin; Deon George, of Laventille; Shastri Mahadeo, of Chaguanas; and Kimal Williams, of Sea Lots, were jointly charged by Cpl Terrence Nowbutt of the MATF with processing minerals without a licence.

Five months earlier, police raided a quarry at an area known as Five Acres, Vega de Oropouche, Sangre Grande, after receiving complaints of armed men threatening Forestry Division workers on state lands, and arrested four people for illegally digging and removing aggregate from state lands.

In that operation, a 40-tonne excavator and a 20-tonne excavator, worth millions of dollars, were seized in that operation and taken to Camp Cumuto for safekeeping.

Police claim aggregate from the Sangre Grande quarry was processed by the wash plant at Wallerfield, then resold to the State.

Pres-T-Con 2021 has a sub-lease from Moonan to occupy ten acres of the parcel of land where the wash plant is located.