A video has been in circulation on Social Media for the past week in which Trinidad & Tobago’s Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith has been highlighting a particular problem in the twin island republic concerning criminal elements from Venezuela who have entered the country due to the ongoing political and grave economic and financial crisis in the South American country.
Mr. Griffith made it clear that his force will abide by the laws of the land as laid down by the Parliament, which is the highest decision making body in the country.
However, he called for more support to be given to the police force to allow them to deport without haste any of those Venezuelan who received amnesty to stay in the country but found to be engaged in illegal activities based on intelligence gathering.
The Chief Cop in Trinidad pointed specifically at the growing link inside the country between these Venezuelan criminal elements and the gangs in Trinidad which are already proving to be a handful for his own law enforcement officers.
The information supplied by Commissioner Griffith is that the Venezuelan Criminals have been deliberately coming to Port-of-Spain since they view Trinidad as a safe haven for them to get involved in their illegal activities.
He referred to an incident in which three Venezuelans engaged in an exchange of gunfire with his officers and had to be taken out by his men.
This is quite frightening given the type of powerful firearms that are known to be on the black market in Venezuela and quite capable of rivaling anything that the police might have in their arsenal.
There is a saying that when your neighbour’s house is on fire that you must also wet yours to prevent the fire from eventually taking over your own house.
Trinidad is only 90 miles away from Grenada and our own security forces ought to be on guard as the Venezuelan criminal elements might be tempted to extend their long and dangerous tentacles into the Spice Isle.
It is well known that the Venezuelan criminal elements bring with them wherever they go large catches of arms and ammunition and illegal drugs especially cocaine.
In the aftermath of Commissioner Griffith’s video release on Social Media, information started to circulate in Grenada itself about certain illegal activities involving a group of Venezuelan women engaged in Prostitution at a certain club in the south of the island.
THE NEW TODAY is aware that this information has been brought to the attention of the High Command of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) to look into this matter.
Over the years, a number of strip tease girls from Trinidad & Tobago were brought into the country to ply their trade at a particular club in the St. Andrew area.
This newspaper has solid information about the kinds of people who were customers in the Prostitution ring such as members of Parliament, as well as persons in the legal profession, police officers themselves and several businessmen.
Individuals were also free to have their own private sessions with these prostitutes from Trinidad at an agreed price.
This information about Venezuelan prostitutes is cause for concern in light of no information from our own government as regards a clearly defined policy on Venezuelan refugees given the ongoing crisis in the South American country.
Health Minister Nicholas Steele came out one week and told the nation that Grenada has not closed its borders with Venezuela and suggested that refugees were free to come in but one week later Caricom Affairs Minister, Oliver Joseph came out with a contradictory statement which indicated that St. George’s will protect its borders from undesirables.
What precisely is the policy of the Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) government on the critical issue of Venezuelan refugees?
Foreign Minister, Peter David, a known close ally of President Maduro in Venezuela has not made any statement on Grenada’s position on Venezuelan refugees who might want to come into Grenada as a safe haven from their crisis-torn country.
Despite the lack of a clearly defined policy on the subject matter from government, the Police Force has a duty and responsibility to uphold the laws of the land and to bring to justice any lawbreaker including foreign nationals.
If it can be established that persons are bringing in and harbouring Venezuelan prostitutes then the law should be allowed to take its course.
If there are Venezuelan prostitutes in the country plying their trade, it is interesting to know whether they came to our shores legally or illegally.
It is quite frankly useless and a waste of time to ask officials at the Venezuelan Embassy in St. George’s for assistance on this matter as the government in Caracas is in turmoil.
In normal times, it was often difficult to get information from government agencies in Venezuela much less in these turbulent times in that South American republic.
THE NEW TODAY will give full support and backing to Commissioner Martin and his men and women in uniform to track down, keep out and if possible eliminate from our shores any criminal elements from Venezuela.
The safety of our people should be put first and above anything else.