Even as the murder rate continues to spiral out of control and criticism of National Security Minister Edmund Dillon grows, the Attorney General is commending his colleague for his hard work in fighting crime.
Speaking at the launch of the Local Government Ministry’s clean-up campaign in San Fernando on Saturday, AG Faris Al-Rawi said he needed to publicly congratulate Dillon for his role in a recent million-dollar drug seizure.
The drug bust occurred on February 18 off the coast of Suriname in a joint effort between the T&T Coast Guard and the US Coast Guard. The drugs, weighing a whopping 4.2 tonnes, had an estimated street value of US$125 million.
“I want to single out something to which the country has not been paying attention. Nearly four tonnes of cocaine were seized by T&T Coast Guard in conjunction with the United States, four tonnes of cocaine which equal close to $1 billion in seizure and that doesn’t happen by mistake,” Al-Rawi said.
“And I want to congratulate my colleague, the Minister of National Security, who takes the blows on his back like a man whilst success is being bred on border lockdown for crime and criminality...led by the Minister of National Security, who knew what was going down, who knew the operations were going to happen, who knew about the joint operation between our Coast Guard and the United States.”
He said Dillon knows that border control is where the war on crime should start and described him as a humble man.
“Our Minister of National Security, a very humble man that he is, coordinated the lockdown of our borders in a very real way, by causing a stoppage of supply of drugs. And in case you didn’t notice, the criminality which finds itself in gang warfare, minus an anti-gang act, because we will not get Opposition support, they refuse to give it, the Minister sat quietly while the investigative arm went to work between T&T and the US, he sat on this story for a couple of weeks because the seizure was in February because he could not speak prematurely.”
He said Dillon knows the way to tackle crime, adding: “By putting our offshore patrol vessels into operations in joint measures with the Venezuelans, with the Americans, with the Dutch, with all the agencies that are giving us control, that this is where the war is had.”