He take blows like a man

Al-Rawi said that in the midst of the controversy which saw Dillon at last week’s post Cabinet press briefing recant the information in the release and apologised to the nation, the National Security Minister was quite humble in keeping secret his coordination of a $837 million drug bust which was made on February 18, when four tonnes of cocaine were seized by the TT Coast Guard in conjunction with the law enforcement officers of the United States off the coast of Suriname.

Speaking at the launch of the San Fernando leg of the National Clean-Up campaign on Saturday morning, Al Rawi said, “Nearly four tonnes of cocaine were seized by the Coast Guard which was close to $1 billion worth.

And ladies and gentlemen, that does not happen by mistake. And I want to congratulate my colleague, the Minister of National Security who takes the blows on his back like a man.

“Whilst success is being bred on border lock-down for crime and criminality led by the Minister of National Security who knew the operations that were going to happen, who knew about the joint action between our coast guard and the United States, our Minister of National Security a very humble man that he is, coordinated the lockdown of our borders in a very real way by causing a stoppage of supply of drugs.” Al-Rawi said that though the drug bust was in February, it would have been premature for Dillon to speak to his leadership role until now. He praised Dillon for leading the drug bust because “locking down our borders is the way to tackle crime.” The Attorney General’s praise came days after Dillon was widely criticised for his ministry describing the extended Carnival weekend as “crime-free”, when there were sevenmurders.

Dillon later apologised for his statements, but many criticised him as being “out-of-touch” with reality.

He announced that 11 “anti- crime” bills would be laid in Parliament in the coming weeks which “will connect all the dots in a very clear fashion to the anti crime matrix which is not only in law but in operations.”