By Black Star News
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
Trinidad and Tobago recently declared that the country is in a state of emergency, the second such one this year, reportedly due to a “grave concern” about a possible coalition of criminal gangs inside–and outside–of the country’s prison system.
The current state of emergency is similar to one that was instituted in December 2024 which extended into 2025.
Police Commissioner, Allister Guevarro, stated that the police had received intelligence information about “organized criminal gangs with persons inside of the prisons and persons operating on the outside of the prisons have formed themselves into what I would want to term an organized crime syndicate.”
Guevarro confirmed that authorities were removing gang leaders from the prison system and locating them elsewhere.
“There are persons who seem hellbent on facilitating the communication of these persons with the outside,” Guevaro said. “So by removing them from this environment and placing them in one where they are much more secure, I can feel rest assured that the communication link is broken.”
Trinidad and Tobago, which has a population of around 1.5 million, has been plagued with gang violence and high rates of homicide. It is one of the most violent countries in the Caribbean.
Attorney General John Jeremie announced that there is now a resurgence of kidnappings and said the state of emergency would remain “as long as the security forces tell us that they need the additional legislative support.”
Guevarro said, “we have seen recent acts of kidnapping and homicides being perpetrated against our citizenry that we have been able to trace back to this organized crime syndicate, and as your Commissioner of Police, I cannot in all good conscience, stand before you at any given time, knowing what I know and not take definitive action against it.”
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