Police step up security with mobile units for crime hot spots

Police have stepped up their presence in Glen, Calliaqua and Fair Hall, following a series of gun related murders in those neighbourhoods.{{more}}

Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr Ralph Gonsalves, speaking at a press conference yesterday, said in addition, plans are in place to set up mobile police units in a number of communities, in an effort to curb the level of gun related crimes that have claimed the lives of four men and left others injured.

“I think they have taken the decision to put a mobile unit in Glen. I don’t know if they have already put a mobile unit in Belair; they have identified a piece of land, because obviously we have to strengthen the security throughout for everybody, including the many visitors who are in that particular area, including the medical students too.”

The community of Belair in the West St George constituency has had its share of criminal activity in recent times, with some students of the All Saints University falling victim to burglaries, robberies and assaults.

In the East St George constituency, a number of gun related crimes have prompted residents to call for a stepped up police presence.

The Prime Minister hinted that the escalating gun violence in the area may be related to what many speculate to be an ongoing drug war, and condemned the actions of the perpetrators of criminal activity in the constituency and other areas.

“I see everybody reporting… that it is a fight in relation to… some cocaine might have landed on the beach and somebody took it who wasn’t supposed to get it and he who was supposed to get it is battling the one who actually got it….

“When I talk about money is really the oxygen of criminality and that drugs is the facilitation of that oxygen, I think people will get a graphic idea to what is happening there….

“When I say we are living in a dangerous neighbourhood; this again Illustrates the fact that we are in a conduit for drugs, cocaine…. We produce the marijuana here, but that is not what is the focus of the real money spinning. The focus of the real money.…

“The cocaine they bring small arms, we don’t produce any firearms, we don’t produce any bullets, we don’t produce the cocaine, but the cocaine, the firearms and the bullets come in and we have to, as a small country, working in conjunction with our CARICOM partners, and working with the US and Canada and the British and the French and the Dutch, to some extent, to deal with this scourge….”

About two years ago, police had set up a mobile unit in the community of Ottley Hall, following a surge in gun related crimes in the area.

A mobile unit was also established in the Paul’s Avenue community a few years ago, following a spate of gunshot killings in that area.