PM: Net of security over TT

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning warned kidnappers and drug lords that their days are numbered as he vowed to throw a net of security across Trinidad and Tobago. His tough talk came on Saturday at Arima Senior Comprehensive School at a PNM public meeting entitled “Reporting to the People.” He said the country’s borders would soon be completely monitored by a combination of radar, helicopters, ships and patrol boats. Manning declared, “What we are putting in place is a net, a net that is so significant that it is with difficulty that such a net can be penetrated. “We have absolutely no doubt that we are going to make a significant intervention in that trade and that the drug dealers are going to conclude, as they have elsewhere, that Trinidad and Tobago’s security is so great, let us go somewhere else.”

The net, he said, may also be extended to assist Eastern Caribbean islands to counter drug traffickers. “So as we pursue the development of Trinidad and Tobago we put a very high priority on the nation’s security.” He recalled the British police service, Scotland Yard, once said that Trinidad and Tobago is small enough for our local drug trade to be completely eradicated. Manning described how the security net covering our borders would be made up of vessels and radar. Firstly, by the end of 2006, he said, the country would buy two ships which could each carry a helicopter and which could stay for up to six weeks out at sea despite the rough waters off East Trinidad. A third ship would be bought in mid-2007. “We will have made a major step forward in our ability to patrol the waters of Trinidad and Tobago.”

Secondly, the country’s coast is to be watched by a 360 degree radar system. “We can see everything that moves in a certain distance,” he effused. “You could see the Venezuelan coastline. You could see boats coming up the Orinoco River, you could see boats leaving the Venezuelan shore at high speed and coming to Trinidad. You could see where they leave and where they land. You could see from the radar how long they stayed and when they go back.” He said that for the first time this radar would give us a picture of the pattern of the drug trade and contraband trade between Venezuela and Trinidad. “Two radar sites are operational, by the middle of this month there should be five more in place, and by the end of July all sites should be operational and the entire system should be in place.”

Saying the radar system was inspired by the optimism of Scotland Yard, Manning said, “It is the complete eradication of the drug trade that caused us to go in these directions.” Thirdly, while awaiting the three patrol ships, patrols would be done by helicopters. “In the interim as part of the arsenal we propose to use armed helicopters as part of the drug interdiction effort.” The first two helicopters would arrive within months. “These helicopters are armed. The high speed boats between Venezuela and Trinidad can now be attacked from the air, using helicopters that have a speed significantly greater than theirs.” Fourthly, he said, Cabinet has agreed to buy six fast patrol boats which he said are “armed to the teeth” to patrol Trinidad’s inshore waters and the Gulf of Paria.

He said the radar, ships, and fast boats comprised a net of security. Manning then congratulated the Police Service for solving the Nath kidnapping case. “As chairman of the National Security Council, I know a little bit more about it than you, and take it from me, it was a spectacular success. “I hope the message is sent to kidnappers now, that things are changing in Trinidad and Tobago. Things are changing. When you kidnap people you are likely to get caught. Then you go before the courts and the courts deal with you.” The courts, he added, would soon see less prisoners evade their sentence of corporal punishment, as Parliament now tightens the law. “The judge says five years and ten strokes. As you go to prison, the first thing you do is appeal the decision, on narrow grounds. But the system is such that the appeal takes a long time to come. Six months have expired and after six months you cannot carry out the sentence.”

He said the Government is now asking Parliament to remove the six-month limit. “So if the judge says licks, it’s licks!” He said corporal punishment would act as a deterrent to criminals. “Because as bad as they are, or so they think they are, as soon as they hear ‘licks,’ big man does get small.” He hailed Granny Joseph who recently tackled a young criminal. Manning concluded, “If you wish to interfere with the peace and security of this country, then there’s a price you are going to pay.”