Dillon, Moonilal square off

However, Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal countered that terrorism was in the country long before the People’s Partnership (PP) government took office and there were two attempts to overthrow a government. He said, “and if you do not get your act together and deal seriously with these matters there may be another attempt.” Dillon and Moonilal faced off in the House of Representatives during the debate on a motion brought by Opposition MP Rodney Charles on the “exponential growth” in the crime rate as manifested in murders, disappearance of persons among other crimes.

According to Dillon, Charles was not aware that Life Sport has “Trinidad and Tobago on the world map right now. It is the genesis of where we are in terms of the ratings we receive right now.” Quoting a newspaper article in which a previous PP government minister is reported to have said millions of dollars was paid to the Jamaat al Muslimeen group, which had among its members criminals and ghost gangs, Dillon repeatedly asked, to loud desk thumping, “Did you fund the Cadet Force during that period?” In his contribution, Moonilal said on demitting office, “I warned this Government that we had persons going to foreign lands to be radicalised and it posed the single most critical element of a threat to this country.

We warned you about that.” Terrorism is the single biggest threat to TT, he said, and he thought Dillon would have announced that Government had established a unit to deal with returning nationals who would pose a security threat.

A similar terrorist attack as happened in Manchester, he said, could happen here, but instead Government members were burying their heads in the sand while the rest of their anatomy remained outside.

Earlier, Dillon claimed Government was continuing to bring a sense of security on the nation’s borders through successful patrols by the Coast Guard in terms of illicit drugs, illegal weapons and trafficking of persons.

He said recent patrols led to two major drug seizures with one being the largest haul since 1999.

As recent as Thursday, he said, the Coast Guard made another $2 million drug bust.

Moonilal said while Dillon boasted about the seizures, he did not say the Coast Guard used high speed vessels bought under the last government that could chase down drug-runners in shallow waters and not offshore patrol vessels that move at two miles an hour in deep sea.

Those vessels, he said, could not have been bought by Government which “cannot buy a boat to carry two trucks to Tobago.” Admitting crime detection is not where it should be, Dillon said in addition to training crime scene investigators, the DNA custodian Government hired has completed the review of the software that is required. He said Government was in the process of procuring the necessary software to develop the DNA data base.