Joshua Seemu-n-gal Se-nior In-ves-tiga-tive Jour-nal-ist joshua.seemu-n-[email protected] For the ma-jor-i-ty of the last 503 days, T&T has been in a State of Emer-gency (SoE), with three sep-a-rate SoEs, each with ex-ten-sions, im-ple-ment-ed since De-cem-ber 2024.
And while they were called by two op-pos-ing ad-min-is-tra-tions, the rea-sons giv-en by both gov-ern-ments were the same, im-mi-nent and se-ri-ous pub-lic threats posed by gangs.
Talk about im-mi-nent and present gang threats re-turned to Par-lia-ment on Wednes-day when At-tor-ney Gen-er-al John Je-re-mie an-nounced that some par-lia-men-tar-i-ans and Gov-ern-ment of-fi-cials re-ceived ad-di-tion-al se-cu-ri-ty be-cause of a re-cent in-ci-dent in-volv-ing a Bel-mont gang mem-ber.
If a gang mem-ber from Bel-mont caused a se-ri-ous na-tion-al se-cu-ri-ty threat on Fri-day, May 8, there has been no pub-lic ar-rest or, giv-en that T&T is in a SoE, no de-ten-tion or-der has been pub-lished.
A re-view of de-ten-tion or-ders by Guardian Me-dia’s In-ves-ti-ga-tions Desk showed that three peo-ple from Bel-mont were de-tained dur-ing the cur-rent SoE.
Two of the three, de-tained be-fore the At-tor-ney Gen-er-al’s an-nounce-ment last Wednes-day, were list-ed as be-ing part of a prison smug-gling ring.
There were no le-gal no-tices pub-lish-ing the names of any al-leged Bel-mont gang mem-bers since the AG’s an-nounce-ment.
Since the SoEs were im-ple-ment-ed, hun-dreds of al-leged gang mem-bers and lead-ers have been in-car-cer-at-ed.
Ac-cord-ing to Guardian Me-dia In-ves-ti-ga-tions Desk’s re-search, since March 3, the be-gin-ning of the present SoE, 227 pre-ven-ta-tive de-ten-tion or-ders have been is-sued by the Min-is-ter of Home-land Se-cu-ri-ty, Roger Alexan-der.
Mem-bers of at least 19 dif-fer-ent gangs and 14 crim-i-nal or-gan-i-sa-tions have been de-tained.
Thir-teen al-leged lead-ers and fac-tion-al lead-ers of the fol-low-ing gangs and or-gan-ised crim-i-nal groups were held on PDOs: Sun-day (alias), al-leged leader of Ras-ta City (7 Gang) Ya-cob, al-leged leader of the 7 Gang Park-er, al-leged leader of the Park-er gang Dover, al-leged leader of the 7 gang JDG, al-leged leader of the 7 Gang Buck, al-leged leader of the Va-len-cia fac-tion of the Re-sis-tance gang Bon-zo, al-leged leader of the Mandin-go Boys gang Boozie, al-leged leader of a Cou-va-based gang Smokey, al-leged leader of the Mar-ket Hill gang Kratos, al-leged leader of the Aliens gang Bean, al-leged leader of an or-gan-ised crime group (OCG) Alex, al-leged leader of a Trinci-ty-based OCG Do-minic, al-leged leader of a Ch-agua-nas-based OCG At least five of the de-tained al-leged gang lead-ers have faced crim-i-nal charges.
Sun-day was charged with coun-selling a gang leader and grant-ed bail.
JDG was charged with gang-re-lat-ed of-fences, but was lat-er re-leased.
Buck faced charges for shoot-ing with in-tent, pos-ses-sion of a firearm and am-mu-ni-tion, and is out on bail.
Boozie was charged with shoot-ing at TTPS of-fi-cers with in-tent and is out on bail.
Smokey served a term of less than a year for rob-bery.
Mean-while, Kratos and Bon-zo were ar-rest-ed last year, but were not charged.
The gangs with the most de-tainees were the Port-of-Spain-based Sev-en/Ras-ta City gang, which has 26 de-tainees; the Sixx gang, which has 19 de-tainees; and the Re-sis-tance gang, with 10 de-tainees.
The de-tained Ras-ta City/Sev-en gang mem-bers pri-mar-i-ly live in Laven-tille, Beetham Gar-dens, Sea Lots, San Juan and El So-cor-ro.
An April in-tel-li-gence re-port on one of the 7 de-tainees stat-ed: “The de-tainee and oth-ers in-tend to im-mi-nent-ly es-ca-late armed at-tacks on ri-vals in pub-lic spaces.” The de-tained Sixx gang mem-bers live pri-mar-i-ly in East Port-of-Spain, but there were al-so mem-bers liv-ing in Guapo, Arou-ca and St Joseph.
A March in-tel-li-gence re-port stat-ed: “Fol-low-ing the killing of gang mem-ber ‘Dap-pa Six’ in Feb-ru-ary 2026, re-ports con-firmed that the gang’s lead-er-ship is-sued in-struc-tions for re-tal-ia-to-ry shoot-ings and vi-o-lent reprisals against the ri-val 7 gang.” The de-tained Re-sis-tance gang mem-bers were from East Trinidad, in-clud-ing Va-len-cia and Ari-ma.
East Port-of-Spain ac-count-ed for the most de-tainees with 43 peo-ple, rep-re-sent-ing around 19 per cent of those held.
Pi-ar-co had the sec-ond high-est num-ber of de-tainees with 18; Clax-ton Bay with 16; San-gre Grande with 13; Pe-nal with 12; Va-len-cia and Ari-ma with 11 each; and Siparia and Mara-bel-la with nine each.
Four-teen de-tainees were Venezue-lan na-tion-als.
They were list-ed as be-ing mem-bers of a kid-nap-ping gang, mem-bers of the Venezue-lan-based gang Tren de Aragua, or as key play-ers in hu-man and gun traf-fick-ing op-er-a-tions with links to lo-cal gangs.
Nine women were among those de-tained, in-clud-ing one woman who was ac-cused of fi-nanc-ing the 7 gang.
Four de-tainees were ac-tive na-tion-al se-cu-ri-ty of-fi-cials, two prison of-fi-cers, a po-lice of-fi-cer and a mu-nic-i-pal po-lice of-fi-cer, all ac-cused of aid-ing gangs.
Ac-cord-ing to Trinidad and To-ba-go Po-lice Ser-vice (TTPS) da-ta, half of the ar-rests made dur-ing the Unit-ed Na-tion-al Con-gress Gov-ern-ment’s first SoE, be-tween Ju-ly 18, 2025 and Jan-u-ary 30, 2026, re-sult-ed in charges.
There were 5,738 ar-rests and 2,880 charges in the 197 days.
In 2025, ac-cord-ing to TTPS da-ta, 23 per cent of all mur-ders, 86 of 369 mur-ders, end-ed with charges.
Da-ta on con-vic-tions, how-ev-er, was not avail-able.
De-fence At-tor-ney Criston J Williams saw par-al-lels in the AG’s re-cent claims and pre-vi-ous claims made by the State against a group of his in-car-cer-at-ed clients.
The mur-der ac-cused, in-clud-ing Ra-jaee Ali, were trans-ferred from the Max-i-mum Se-cu-ri-ty Prison to Staubles Bay and Teteron Bar-racks in late 2025, and were sus-pect-ed by the State of plan-ning at-tacks against sev-er-al se-nior of-fi-cials.
None of them has been charged in re-la-tion to the al-leged threats, but they re-main at the Bar-racks, pend-ing the out-come of a ju-di-cial re-view.
“If they have the iden-ti-ty of the gang mem-ber (from Bel-mont), they have the pow-ers un-der an SoE to put him on a de-ten-tion or-der.
What is the point of talk-ing about one sin-gle gang mem-ber who is cre-at-ing a threat?
How can that be a threat?
Why would you put that in the me-dia?” he asked.
The at-tor-ney be-lieved the threat was part of the Gov-ern-ment’s plan to get its Zones of Spe-cial Op-er-a-tions (ZOSO), which in-cludes cur-fews in cer-tain com-mu-ni-ties, passed through the back door.
“At this mo-ment in time, the whole gang in Bel-mont, all 25 of them, could be put on a de-ten-tion or-der and tak-en off the streets with-out any fuss…If you know the in-for-ma-tion, why don’t you just tell your Home-land Se-cu-ri-ty Min-is-ter?
It’s the Min-is-ter of De-fence, that’s cred-i-ble in-for-ma-tion, and you just lock the peo-ple up us-ing the pow-ers the par-lia-ment has al-ready giv-en you.
Why is this one sin-gle gang mem-ber brave enough to threat-en par-lia-ment?
Noth-ing you are telling me has any in-tel-li-gence back-ing from any-one else.” Crim-i-nol-o-gist Dr Dau-rius Figueira al-so ques-tioned the le-git-i-ma-cy and mo-tives of the AG’s state-ment.
“Is the state man-u-fac-tur-ing threats to jus-ti-fy per-ma-nent SoEs?.
What has been ac-com-plished to neu-tralise these threats?
Where are these threats em-a-nat-ing from?
From the gang-land of North Trinidad and To-ba-go, gang-land from Cunu-pia to Bar-rack-pore?
All the tar-gets list-ed are in the North.
Is it a threat from the North?
How can those of the South at-tack the State in a space that is hos-tile to them?
Con-tin-ue to hood-wink the pop-u-la-tion,” Figueira said.
On Fri-day, sev-er-al Gov-ern-ment sen-a-tors and MPs said they were un-aware of a se-cu-ri-ty threat against par-lia-men-tar-i-ans.
At-tempts to get fur-ther in-for-ma-tion, such as who was threat-ened and by whom, from At-tor-ney Gen-er-al John Je-re-mie and De-fence Min-is-ter Wayne Sturge proved fu-tile, with both ig-nor-ing ques-tions from the me-dia.
In De-cem-ber 2024, the for-mer Prime Min-is-ter Dr Kei-th Row-ley-led ad-min-is-tra-tion de-clared an SoE be-cause in-tel-li-gence in-di-cat-ed there was a se-ri-ous threat of gang reprisal killings on a large scale.
In Ju-ly 2025, the sec-ond SoE was an-nounced by Prime Min-is-ter Kam-la Per-sad-Bisses-sar.
The rea-sons for the SoE were sim-i-lar to the rea-sons giv-en by the pre-vi-ous ad-min-is-tra-tion, the threat of large-scale reprisal vi-o-lence by gangs.
That SoE was ex-tend-ed twice be-fore end-ing on Jan-u-ary 31.
A third SoE be-gan in ear-ly March.
Once again, like the pre-vi-ous two SoEs, the rea-son giv-en was the im-mi-nent threat of wide-spread gang vi-o-lence threat-en-ing pub-lic safe-ty.
There was a sig-nif-i-cant de-crease in se-ri-ous crimes, with mur-ders de-clin-ing to 369 in 2025, the coun-try’s low-est fig-ure in a decade.
How-ev-er, there were sev-er-al mass killings and shoot-ings dur-ing the pe-ri-od.
Last week, three peo-ple, in-clud-ing two-year-old Akan-ni Kafi, were mur-dered in Bel-mont.
Last Sun-day, three Arou-ca res-i-dents were shot.
In late April, four peo-ple, in-clud-ing nine-year-old J’Lay-na Arm-strong, were shot dead along La-dy Young Road.
In March, three men, 17 years old, 21 years old, and 22 years old, were mur-dered in their San Fer-nan-do home.
In Feb-ru-ary, three men were killed by armed men in Laven-tille.
In Jan-u-ary, an 11-year-old girl was among three peo-ple shot in their legs dur-ing a dri-ve-by shoot-ing in Laven-tille.
In De-cem-ber 2025, three peo-ple were in-jured dur-ing a shoot-ing in Chatham, Point Fortin.
In Oc-to-ber 2025, three peo-ple were shot as part of an on-go-ing Mt Hope com-mu-ni-ty feud, killing two broth-ers, in-clud-ing a 15-year-old.
That month, four oth-ers, in-clud-ing two teenagers, were shot in Bras-so, killing a 20-year-old.
In Feb-ru-ary 2025, three peo-ple were shot dead, and a six-year-old boy was in-jured, when men stormed their Gua-napo home.
Ras-ta City/7 Any-body Gets It (ABG) Re-sis-tance North Coast Gang Rail-way-road Bad-ness Killers & Sin-ners Mandin-go Boys Mar-ket Hill La Hor-quet-ta Phase 7 Mus-lim Gang Sawmill Av-enue 7 Tren de Aragua Ja-madar Street, San Fer-nan-do Clax-ton Bay En-ter-prise San-gre Grande Un-named kid-nap-ping gangs
Trinidad and Tobago State of Emergency, John Jeremie, Roger Alexander preventative detention, Belmont gang threat, Zones of Special Operations ZOSO, TTPS arrests and charges