Guy: Laventille operation not compromised

POLICE COMMISSIONER Hilton Guy said statements in the media about the impending police/army operation in Laventille/Morvant will in no way diminish the success of that operation.

Speaking to reporters at Crowne Plaza yesterday, the Commissioner also revealed that four Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agents will be coming to Trinidad to train local, Guyanese and Surinamese cops in the latest surveillance and detection techniques to deal with kidnapping.

Guy reiterated that no senior officer in the Police Service dubbed the exercise “Operation Baghdad” and he was certain it was reporters who gave it that title. However, it was his ACP Crime, who on Monday in an exclusive interwview with Newsday reporter Nalinee Seelal said of the Laventille operation, “It would be like Baghdad.”

He said while it was preferable that such operations be kept secretive “if it is announced beforehand it gives a disadvantage to the implementation of that plan, but it is not fatal.”

“It doesn’t mean that because it is known that all participants of criminal activity will put away all instruments of crime, or leave the area. They are not that coward they are not that considerate, but it is preferable that the element of surprise be preserved,” the Commissioner said.

Guy said the present situation in Laventille/Morvant is more complex than what is seen in the newspapers and that “our intelligence gathering effort has been enhanced and intensified to deal with that complex situation”.

“Our intelligence is not merely to identify criminals or prospective areas of criminality, but to gather other conditions that are precedent,” Guy added. The Commissioner confirmed  National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee’s announcement about FBI agents coming to train members of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad, and said the training will also include members of the Guyanese and Surinamese police forces.