3 months ago
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Roger Alexander - A St Augustine woman is among the newest state-of-emergency (SoE) detainees accused of acting as a trusted lieutenant to an incarcerated gang leader.
Five new detention orders signed off by Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander were gazetted on August 8.
Legal Notice No 167 alleges the woman, the love interest of a suspected gang leader detained at a military facility, recruited and armed gang members, directed kidnappings against business owners, and ordered murders of state officials, including police, prison officers, and members of the judiciary.
She is also accused of orchestrating the killing of street vendors, extorting businesses, and attempting to smuggle narcotics and communications devices into the Teteron military facility.
“She has been identified as a trusted member of the gang who is planning, directing, procuring and supervising gang activity for the gang wherein she has recruited and armed gang members with firearms and provided instructions from the gang leader to engage in acts of kidnapping against the business community and to kill state officials including members of the TTPS (TT Police Service), Prison’s Service and the Judiciary.
“She has been implicated in the kidnapping of a doubles vendor’s daughter for ransom, the killing of a coconut vendor on more than one occasion and the extortion of several businesses in her area.
“She has been receiving instructions from the incarcerated gang leader to plan and execute criminal enterprises, specifically, to kidnap members of the business community to fund the gang leader’s bail application.
“She was recently a participant in a communication with others who are planning a coalition of forces to imminently kill public officials, namely police officers, prison officers and members of the Judiciary.
“She has armed young members of the gang with weapons who are awaiting the instruction to begin their plan elements of which are planned to be executed in public with high-powered rifles thereby endangering public safety.
“She recently attempted to get narcotics and communication devices into the Teteron Barracks where the gang leader is being held.”
The order said her detention was necessary to disrupt an active plot to assassinate public officials using high-powered rifles in crowded areas.
The orders described a network of high-ranking gang members and facilitators engaged in kidnappings, contract killings, arms trafficking, and intimidation. The legal notices, signed between July 30 and August 6, cite imminent threats to public safety.
Other detainees include, an alleged senior firearms handler for a major gang, accused of storing and distributing AR-15s, rifles, and handguns for use in enforcement, intimidation, and retaliation; a suspected gang scout and armed enforcer believed to have transported weapons, conducted surveillance, and participated in attempted public assassinations; a known gunman alleged to have conspired with others to murder a woman in a public location during working hours, an act the order said would have posed serious risk to civilians; and a key operative accused of overseeing narcotics trafficking, money laundering, firearms storage, attempted murders, and violent territorial expansion on behalf of his gang.
Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander signed all orders, which authorise detention without warrant and indefinite holding at designated correctional facilities.
Some of the detainees were said to be associated with the Resistance gang.
On August 6, eight similar detention orders were gazetted,citing imminent threats to national security posed by alleged gang members and criminal conspirators. According to Legal Notices No. 255 through 261, Alexander ordered the detentions under the authority of Regulation 14, which empowers the state to preemptively detain individuals suspected of endangering public safety. The orders target a network of suspected gang affiliates linked to homicide investigations, assassination plots, and access to high-powered weapons.
The orders alleged gang affiliations and suspected involvement in the murder of a man killed earlier this year. The orders said that some of the detainees were involved in a plan to assassinate a second individual in retaliation and had made threats to members of the public.
Another group of individuals was alleged to have conspired to murder a woman in a public space during working hours, a plan that officials say posed a significant risk to civilians. One of the detainees was described as a logistical facilitator, while others were believed to be armed gang members.
Two additional detainees were identified as members of a violent criminal group known for planning reprisal shootings using high-powered rifles. They were accused of planning attacks in response to the recent killing of a suspected gang affiliate.
All individuals are being held at the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre in Santa Rosa, Arima, or the Women’s Prison in Arouca.
Alexander signed those orders on July 26.
Newsday understands the detainees at Teteron Barracks in Chaguaramas were removed to the Coast Guard's Staubles Bay base, also on the western peninsula.
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