NINE Venezuelans have been arrested for illegally entering Trinidad and Tobago.

A source told Newsday that on July 19, officers from the Shirvan Road district held a roadblock between 4 and 8 am resulting in the arrest of the nine Venezuelans – seven males between 20 and 41 and two 22-year-old women – who entered the country illegally.

This exercise, the source said, was strategically directed by ACP Collis Hazel and Snr Supt Rodhill Kirk, co-ordinated by ASP Barath (Area West), spearheaded and led by Insp Bacchus, and involved officers from IATF, Task Force, K9 Unit, Divisional CID, SIU Department, Immigration, and personnel from the Shirvan Road Police Station.

Questioned on the issue, THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said from his information, the nine were part of a ring, who were deported from Trinidad as he added “in two or so days after being deported, they found their way back into the country through Tobago.

“So the TTPS here in Tobago was able to crack a ring by which they were able to evade authorities and find their way back into the country through Tobago’s open borders.”

He said the open borders is something that is being worked on feverishly. “I was assured up to last week that we should have sufficient vehicles and so on for the TTPS to be able to manage the patrols, manage the outflows.” He said there was a shooting over the weekend in the Whim community but no one was killed or injured.

“That is currently being investigated.”

He said the crime situation on the island is being actively worked on. “It is a work in progress and the truth is our crime situation as a country is so far gone that it requires a very radical approach, a radical response. It is not something that we would be able to overturn overnight but it certainly requires a kind of response we’ve never seen before.”

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