Police, customs conduct wharf raid

RECENT reports of Grenadian stowaways heading to Trinidad and Tobago and that of looting in the hurricane-hit island, led to a Customs and Excise Division exercise yesterday at Queens Wharf, Port-of-Spain. Between 7 am and 6 pm yesterday, a combined team of the Marine Interdiction Unit (part of the Customs and Excise Preventive Unit), the Inter-Agency Task Force, with dogs from the Police Canine Unit, swooped down on the port, targetting boats coming from Grenada. Ten such boats were searched, but the officers left empty-handed.

A senior officer said the exercise came about because of reports of Grenadian stowaways showing up on TT shores and the reports of mass looting that took place on that island after the destruction caused by Hurricane Ivan. “While we held a few people, after discussions with the Immigration Department, they were released. As to looted or any other contraband items, we found none,” said a senior customs officer, who promised the random exercises would continue. Although he could not say how many stowaways have been reported seen in TT since the hurricane, he would only say more than one person had been held.