The ten-hour exercise began at 4 am and was led by ASP Ajith Persad and coordinated by Senior Superintendent Radcliffe Boxhill while the Defence Force team was led by Lieutenant Sookdeo. Other officers involved were Inspector Bruno, Sgt Williams of the Inter Agency Task force, Sgt Austin, PCs Jack, Ince and others.

Dogs “Bak” and “CID” from the Police Canine Unit were also involved in the exercise. During the raid, several houses, apartments and vacant buildings were searched.

At Siparia Hill, two women from Santo Domingo were found in a house which they claimed they were renting. They were arrested after officers discovered their passports to be forged.

The women were later handed over to officers of the Immigration Department. Other persons were arrested on outstanding warrants.

A quantity of illicit drugs was seized. Some of the detainees were expected to be placed on identification parades yesterday.

Further exercises are planned.

Yesterday, the State requested to reopen the prosecution’s case and before Justice Althea Alexis-Windsor, nine criminal convictions chalked up by Baboolal, 41, of Mayaro, were read to the 12-member jury. Senior state attorney Shabaana Shah, in reading the convictions, said that on January 21, 1998, Baboolal was sentenced to five years in jail for house-breaking and larceny.

He had eight other convictions on December 12, 2002 for larceny in which he was sentenced to three years in the case of one of those charges, and 36 months on the other seven. Shah then announced that the State’s case against Baboolal was closed.

The State called 12 witnesses in all against Baboolal who is alleged to have stabbed 26-year-old Ria Ramlochan to death at her Solomon Street, Mayaro home on a day between August 10 and August 14, 2005. Her body was found in a latrine pit nearby. Ramlochan’s 18-month-old son Ishmael Timothy Ragbir, was discovered on the banks of the Ortoire River in Mafeking Village, Mayaro.

The child was stabbed several times and one of his ears cut off.

When sanitation employees from the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation took out Ramlochan’s body from the pit, it was covered in faeces and there were holes in the chest.

Baboolal was yesterday asked to stand in the dock where the Judicial Support Officer told him that the case for the prosecution was closed and he could now make his defence. His choices, according to the officer, was to stay in the dock or give evidence on oath and call witnesses. Baboolal said he will stay in the dock but will call witnesses.

Attorney Rekha Ramjit who is being instructed by Gina Ramjohn, stood next to the dock as the court noted the accused man’s intention to have witnesses testify in his defence.

Justice Alexis-Windsor told the jury that it was Baboolal’s right not to testify, if he so chooses and therefore they ought not to form any adverse opinion about it.

An accused person remaining silent, the judge reiterated, is a right.

The first witness on behalf of Baboolal is expected to testify today.

The Arouca woman is alleged to have stolen a Mitsubishi Lancer from Rahaman Development on March 19, which has not yet been recovered. She woman was arrested on Saturday. In handcuffs, she was taken before Senior Magistrate Nanette Forde-John in the First Court. The charge alleged that the owner secured his vehicle at about 6 pm and when he returned, the same day, at 10 pm, found it missing.

PC Praveen Rajkumar of San Fernando CID conducted investigations and Joseph, 23, of Waterloo Road was charged. Attorney Chantal Paul told the magistrate that Joseph is eight months pregnant and has no previous convictions.

Prosecutor Cleyon Seedan, objected to bail on the ground that the police needed to confirm Joseph’s past criminal record, if any.

Magistrate Forde-John granted bail in the sum of $75,000 with a cash alternative of $15,000. Joseph was ordered to return to court on May 3. The stolen car is valued $89,000.

Prior to being charged, Campbell was taken from the Fraud Squad (South) offices inside the San Fernando Police Station yesterday, to Police Headquarters in Port-of-Spain where he remains detained. Campbell, 74, was arrested Tuesday morning at his law chambers on Harris Promenade, by police led by Senior Superintendent Totaram Dookhie, who heads the Fraud Squad.

Via a warrant, a party of officers searched Campbell’s office and took away documents. Campbell, who has over 40 years in private practice in the civil and criminal courts, was escorted out of his chambers and onto the road where he was held around the arm and taken to the San Fernando Police Station.

He spent the night there and yesterday morning was taken to Police Headquarters. Fraud Squad officers included ASP Kent Ghisyawan, Sgt Marcus Francis, Cpl Ricardo Toney, Fraud Squad legal officer Vinelle Bassarath and PC Liz-Anne Lazarus.

This action comes after months of speculation that the retailer was on less than steady financial ground.

CEO W. Paul Jones said in a statement the decision was “difficult but necessary, driven by the continued challenges of the retail environment which will only intensify.” However, there are plans to invest heavily in areas where the stores are still experiencing growth such as Latin America.

According to a report on Forbes.

com, the retailer was pursuing bankruptcy in order to reinvest money in areas where it believed there were still opportunities to expand. In an attempt to find out the status of local stores, Newsday was directed to Meghan Spreer, the shoe store’s Strategic Communications Adviser in Topeka, Kansas.

Spreer said the company did not expect to close any of its stores in Latin America, including Trinidad and Tobago. According to Spreer, international expansion remained a priority to Payless and the company planned to open 22 new locations throughout the region though she was not able to say in which territories.

The Forbes.com report said Payless has entered into an agreement to reduce its debt by almost 50 percent and as well as negotiated up to US$385 million of debtor-in-possession financing from existing lenders to help keep the business running and successfully emerge from bankruptcy.

The company’s bankruptcy documents listed its current liabilities as ranging from US$1 billion to US$10 billion, while its assets ranged from US$500 million to US$1 billion.

The company has suffered the fate of many US retailers who are finding it difficult to compete as brick and mortar stores against online shopping.

Payless is also expected to renegotiate terms with several of the leaseholders of their 4,400 stores around the world.

Gadbsy-Dolly also said total revenue collected in ticket sales for Dimanche Gras was $389,900.

In terms of the cash prizes, she said 2017 Calypso Monarch Dr Hollis Liverpool (Chalkdust) received a cash prize of $700,000.

Karene Asche, Heather MacIntosh, Terri Lyons and Rondell Donawa, received cash prizes of $400,000, $200,000, $100,000 and , $75,000 respectively.

Devon Seales, Roderick Gordon, Victoria Cooper Rahim, Lynette Steele,and Anthony Henrickson, each received cash prizes of $40,000. Winston “Gypsy” Peters, Kurt Allen, Sacha Ann Moses Miguella Simon, Brian London and, Lornette Nedd Reid each received cash prizes of $20,000.

The minister also said there was a 97 per cent occupancy of vendors’ booths at the Queen’s Park Savannah during Carnival and $113,100 was collected from those rentals.

Meanwhile, the auditing firm PriceWaterCooper is conducting an audit of a $400 million project to build access roads undertaken by the EMBD in 2015.

Chairman of the Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee (PAEC) Wade Mark described the EMBD yesterday as a runaway horse that needs to be corralled because of lack of oversight on financial accounts.

The accusation was made at a meeting of the PAEC at the Parliament building, Port-of-Spain.

The meeting assessed the financial operations of the EMBD for the period 2008 to 2010.

Among those owed are 31 large contractors (over $35 million), 19 medium contractors (between $12 to $35 million), 65 small contractors (between $2 to $12 million) and 19 micro contractors (less than $2 million).

These include outstanding payments for Voluntary Separation of Employment Package (VSE P) contractors, VSE P consultants, agricultural access roads, fish landing, fence line, road projects, miscellaneous and legal claims.

According to EMBD chairman Shameer Mohammed, Namalco is claiming $1.3 billion is owed to it but the EMBD claims it owes the company $9 million for which a cheque in that sum has been made out as an interim payment. The matter is before the court. He said an internal auditor is expected to hired within the next two weeks.

Senior Audit Analyst in the Ministry of Finance Varuna Ramdial said, “We were not aware there was no internal auditor at the EMBD.” Member David Small questioned the relationship between the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture and EMBD.

The EMBD, it was revealed, has been affected by a high rate of turn over of staff with over 50 percent of the general staff being hired less than a year ago.

It is without a chief executive officer (CEO), a divisional manager — corporate services, and divisional manager — projects. The vacancies are to be advertised over the next four to six weeks, Mohammed said.

The last CEO, he said, was sent on leave to facilitate an audit and his last working day on the job was last Friday. On the audit, Mohammed said PWC was hired to deal with the award of the $400 million contracts awarded to five contractors to build ten by-pass roads in mid 2015.

“The scope of PWC would be to ascertain whether or not there was any fraud, cost overrun, bid-rigging, variations in quality and quantity of works,” he said.

Asked whether the work fell within the EMBD’s remit, he said, “If you have received an instruction from your line ministry to undertake certain works, subject to the respective approvals, be it Cabinet or otherwise, one would have no option but to execute the mandate of the line ministry.” Member Shamfa Cudjoe said the EMBD has a “strong record of recklessness and mismanagement” and based on the reports it was unbelievable that contracts which started at $67 million ended up at $334 million in variations and $66 million evolved into $659 million in variations.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Angela Siew said variations in contracts go to Cabinet for approval. On a 1,000 percent increase in variations in a contract, Siew said with changes in the ministries, inconsistencies might not have been picked up.

Siew, who assumed her current post eight months ago, said it was difficult for the ministry to answer things from the past.

She said the history of EMBD shows that it has been moved around several ministries. From 2002 to 2015 and to the present, it has been under the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Food Production and Marine Affairs, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. It has been under the Ministry of Agriculture since September 2015.

The Agriculture Ministry yesterday said the temporary restriction remains in place “pending the outcome of ongoing talks with the Brazilian government about its food-safety standards.” The ministry will make a decision to lift the ban “once it is fully satisfied that the affected products — corned beef, chicken patties and chicken nuggets — pose no risk to local consumers.” It added that since the story broke two weeks ago, Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat has sought assurances from the Brazilian authorities via Dr Amery Browne, this country’s ambassador in Brazil, about the safety of corned beef, chicken patties and chicken nuggets made in that country. “Ambassador Browne has held meetings and exchanged correspondence with officials of Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Farming to fully understand the actions being taken by the South American country to restore confidence in its meat-producing sector.” “Additionally, following discussions with our own Ministry of Health, the Chemistry, Food and Drug Division undertook pathogen testing of Brazil- made corned beef, chicken patties and chicken nuggets to rule out contamination and ensure these products meet health standards.The full results of these tests will be revealed once pathogen testing is complete,” the Agriculture Ministry said.

Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries stopped issuing import permits for meat products from Brazil and advised the Chemistry, Food and Drug Division of the Ministry of Health to immediately recall from supermarkets and other retail outlets corned beef, chicken patties and chicken nuggets originating from Brazil.

That action followed an investigation by Brazilian authorities that uncovered major meat-processing plants in the country sold rotten beef and poultry for years, while bribing health officials to issue fraudulent inspection reports. Rambharat and officials from the Ministries of Health and Trade subsequently met president of the Supermarket Association Dr Yunus Ibrahim and other Association members, and local importers of corned beef and chicken products from Brazil. The meeting was called to give importers and distributors the opportunity to discuss the recall and have concerns elating to its implementation addressed.

According to sources, the move stemmed from the upsurge in murders in the Western Division.

Newsday understands that there were nine more murders in the division than for the same period last year and the commissioner was alarmed.

Up until yesterday there had been 16 murders in the Western Division for the year.

Sources revealed, before Williams order on Tuesday, Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Crime Irwin Hackshaw met Ramdhanie and other members of the Western Division on Sunday to discuss the spate of murders in that division. It was decided that officers at the Maraval Police Station would work 24- hour shifts. Some welcomed the move saying they were happy for the overtime pay they would receive, while others felt they were being overworked. However the new working hours have been implemented.

This is expected to be on a short-term basis.

Newsday also understands that additional manpower has been placed in the La Puerta, Diego Martin area where there has been an upsurge in murders.

Contacted yesterday on the situation, president of the Police Social and Welfare Association Inspector Michael Seales said “The association sees nothing wrong with that move.

Other officers in the second division have been asked to proceed on all their leave in situations where their leave would have exceeded the 90-days threshold.

The members have the opportunity to talk to the association who can make representation on their behalf for their leave to be deferred if the circumstances warrant it.

“There has been no word from Ramdhanie on whether he wants representation or not, so the association would not speak on the issue, but would only say that the Acting CoP has constitutional powers that he can exercise for the complete management and efficiency of the police. If he acts outside of this and a member is aggrieved, then the association would challenge his decision.” Williams could not be reached for comment.

In January two other senior superintendents Simboonath Rajkumar and John Trimm were given seven days to respond to Williams’ decision to send them on early retirement. That matter is before the courts.

Kokaram, at the close of submissions yesterday in Boney’s false imprisonment claim, said he will give his decision on Thursday of next week.

At yesterday’s hearing, Boney’s lawyers contended that the police damaged his reputation by the allegations made against him.

Attorney Lee Merry, who with Kelston Pope is representing Boney, argued that the police never justified their arrest and detention of his client despite advancing a defence that it was legally done under the Emergency Powers Regulations.

Boney in his lawsuit is claiming between $400,000 and $500,000 in compensation.

Merry also said the State failed to provide the reports and police files which detailed the alleged plot and Boney’s alleged involvement.

In defence of the police’s actions, lead counsel for the Attorney General Coreen Findley said the report was confidential and could not be disclosed as it dealt with matters of national security.

On Tuesday, retired deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Mervyn Richardson defended Boney’s arrest and detention, saying the police had cogent, compelling intelligence that something bad was to happen.

“We had to act,” Richardson said.

Boney was one of some 17 people, including a police sergeant, who were arrested in connection with an alleged threat to assassinate Persad-Bissessar and three members of Cabinet as well as create public disorder and panic.

He was released on December 5, 2011, when the SOE ended, without being charged after being in custody for some five days.

Richardson said Boney’s name was on the list of suspects and surveillance and discreet inquiries were conducted by police.

Attorney Rachael Thurab also appears for the Attorney General.