In a significant legal development, Garvin Guerra, son of recently-released businessman Danny Guerra, is scheduled to appear before Trinidad and Tobago’s State of Emergency Review Tribunal on January 6th. The younger Guerra has retained the services of British King’s Counsel Richard John Thomas KC, the same attorney who successfully represented his father, to challenge his preventive detention order (PDO).
Garvin Guerra was initially arrested alongside his father on November 20th under allegations of gang membership, illegal arms trafficking, money laundering, and unauthorized quarry operations. His detention order specifically accused him of maintaining access to high-powered firearms with alleged intentions to assassinate a government minister and escalate attacks against rival gangs in public areas.
The legal proceedings gained momentum following the dramatic release of Danny Guerra on January 2nd, when Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander revoked his detention order. This development occurred mere hours after the Guerra legal team escalated their challenge by issuing a pre-action protocol letter to Minister Alexander, threatening immediate High Court proceedings unless the detention was revoked or comprehensive disclosure provided by the January 2nd deadline.
The Guerra case has drawn attention to the functioning of the SoE Review Tribunal, which defense attorneys have criticized for failing to act with sufficient urgency to protect constitutional rights during the state of emergency. Attorney Thomas KC received official authorization from Attorney General John Jeremie through Legal Notice No. 1 of 2026, gazetted on January 5th and signed January 2nd, to practice in Trinidad and Tobago specifically for this case.
Background investigations reveal that both Guerras faced previous charges on October 11th for unlicensed aggregate processing, for which they secured $50,000 bail each. These charges stemmed from a major police operation on October 9th that targeted an illegal quarry at Manuel Congo, Guanapo, resulting in the seizure of multimillion-dollar processing equipment and the detention of 18 individuals including the Guerras. All defendants have since appeared in court regarding these separate charges.