标签: Trinidad and Tobago

特立尼达和多巴哥

  • PM: Report made to Fraud Squad to probe Scotland

    PM: Report made to Fraud Squad to probe Scotland

    In a bombshell announcement delivered to Trinidad and Tobago’s Parliament this week, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has opened the door to a full criminal investigation into Keith Scotland, an Opposition Member of Parliament and senior counsel, over allegations of corruption, malfeasance, and conspiracy to defraud connected to a multi-million-dollar uncollected utility debt case. The allegations center around a years-long dispute between state-owned energy provider Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) and Flavorite Foods Ltd., a food processing firm chaired by Andre Monteil, a former treasurer of the opposition People’s National Movement (PNM).

    According to the Prime Minister’s detailed account, Flavorite Foods accumulated more than $2.39 million in unpaid electricity bills between April 2017, when the arrears began to accrue, and January 2022, when the company was finally permanently disconnected from the power grid. The arrears built up steadily over that five-year window: by April 2019, the company owed roughly $572,000, despite multiple negotiated payment plans that Flavorite repeatedly breached. Even after a temporary disconnection that year, power was surprisingly restored the same day without any payment being applied to the outstanding balance. T&TEC continued to tolerate repeated missed payments for nearly three more years, cutting off service permanently only when the total debt crossed the $2.4 million threshold in January 2022.

    Nine months after the permanent disconnection, T&TEC moved to recover the lost funds by retaining legal services from Scotland’s Virtus Chambers, specifically contracting Scotland and junior attorney Keisha Kydd-Hannibal to pursue the claim. The legal firm filed an initial High Court claim for the full $2.4 million in December 2022, but for 11 months, T&TEC’s legal team received no substantive updates despite repeated requests for information. When a meeting was finally scheduled in October 2023, Kydd-Hannibal only stated that Flavorite’s legal team had requested an extension to file a defense, offering no explanation for why Scotland had not moved to secure a default judgment after the required legal window elapsed, and refusing to disclose basic details including the identity of Flavorite’s legal representation.

    Court rules require a defendant to enter an appearance and file a defense within eight days of being served a claim, but Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar confirmed that no appearance or defense was ever submitted by Flavorite. Rather than proceeding with a default judgment as required, Scotland’s chambers advised that the claim would be refiled due to the unexplained delays, and a second claim for the same amount was submitted in September 2023. For another year, T&TEC continued to push for updates, with Scotland’s chambers repeatedly assuring the utility that a default judgment application had been filed and was being processed by court staff. As recently as November 2024, the firm confirmed the application had been withdrawn and refiled to address procedural issues.

    The entire scheme unraveled earlier this year, when T&TEC’s own attorneys directly requested confirmation from the Supreme Court Registrar as to whether any default judgment applications had ever been filed in either the 2022 or 2023 claims. In responses dated April 2026, Registrar Antonya Pierre confirmed that no such applications existed on court record for either case. A subsequent follow-up check by Registrar Dion Phillip in June 2026 reaffirmed the finding: thorough searches showed no default judgment requests had ever been submitted, and there was no evidence that the claim had ever been formally served to Flavorite Foods at all.

    As a result of the delays caused by the false representations from Scotland’s chambers, the Prime Minister confirmed, the entire $2.4 million claim has now become statute-barred, meaning the debt can no longer be pursued through the courts, leaving Trinidad and Tobago taxpayers on the hook for millions in lost public funds.

    In response to the findings, Persad-Bissessar has already ordered two parallel actions to hold those involved accountable. First, she has instructed Minister of Public Utilities Barry Padarath to direct T&TEC to file a civil lawsuit against Scotland and his chambers, alleging fraudulent misrepresentation, professional negligence, and breach of contract over the botched debt recovery effort. Second, the Prime Minister has ordered that a formal disciplinary complaint be prepared for submission to the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago’s Disciplinary Committee, alleging violations of the professional Code of Conduct laid out in the country’s Legal Profession Act. Most notably, a formal report has already been filed with the national Fraud Squad, which will now lead a criminal investigation to determine whether conspiracy to defraud, malfeasance, and corruption charges are warranted against Scotland.

    As of the announcement, media outlets have been unable to reach Andre Monteil for comment on the allegations, and Scotland has not yet issued a public response to the Prime Minister’s claims in Parliament.

  • ‘Money spent on cheese paste, champagne’

    ‘Money spent on cheese paste, champagne’

    In a fiery address to Trinidad and Tobago’s Parliament during a vote to approve the Standing Finance Committee’s report, Attorney General John Jeremie launched a scathing attack on the prior People’s National Movement (PNM) administration, accusing it of wasting $1 million in public funds on a premature, extravagant opening ceremony for the Port of Spain General Hospital’s new Central Block back in March 2025.

    Jeremie detailed that the event, which drew three-quarters of the former PNM cabinet, centered on unnecessary luxury spending that included cheese paste and champagne, even as the facility remained wholly unequipped to deliver even the most basic patient care. At the time of the high-profile opening, he explained, the Central Block only held a certificate of practical project completion—a designation that meant full operational readiness was still far from achieved. More than 10,000 pieces of medical equipment had yet to be installed, plumbing infrastructure remained unfinished, rendering all restrooms unusable, and the building held no beds, no stock of medications, not even common over-the-counter pain relievers like Panadol for event attendees who might have fallen ill. Construction on the structure would drag on for months after the ceremony concluded, Jeremie added.

    Beyond the hospital spending controversy, the Attorney General pinned the blame for recent international credit and economic downgrades for Trinidad and Tobago squarely on the PNM’s previous term in office. He defended the current United National Congress (UNC) administration’s economic management, arguing that the former finance minister Colm Imbert and his colleagues were responsible for the country’s ongoing economic challenges. Jeremie also pushed back against opposition criticism of the current government’s new fiscal measures, clarifying that recent increased penalties across multiple sectors are not new taxes, but enforcement penalties for violations of the law. He accused the PNM opposition of deliberately spreading misinformation to stoke public fear and anger toward the ruling administration.

    Jeremie also used the parliamentary address to reinforce the current government’s commitment to equal application of the law, stating that no person—regardless of their social status, political connections, or ties to powerful institutions like banks or former prime ministers—is above the law. He contrasted this with what he claimed was the PNM’s long-standing culture of applying different rules to people based on their connections, adding that the opposition’s default response to policy disagreement is to incite unrest rather than engage in constructive debate.

    The Attorney General claimed that recent attempts at unrest have included collaborations between opposition-aligned elements and two notorious local gangs, known as Sixx and Seven, to stir up public disorder. He closed by reiterating his accusation that opposition lawmakers have spread ignorance and stoked dangerous social tension in recent debates, with one unnamed opposition representative engaging in particularly “loathsome and repugnant” rhetoric to drive division.

  • Padarath denies  staff intimidation

    Padarath denies staff intimidation

    A contentious confrontation between the ruling United National Congress (UNC) and opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) has erupted in Trinidad and Tobago following a heated Standing Finance Committee meeting last Friday, centered on a photograph taken by Government Business Leader Barry Padarath of a parliamentary audio technician. The incident has escalated into a broader political firestorm, with accusations of intimidation, institutional overreach, and even seditious racial rhetoric flying between the two major parties.

    Speaking to reporters outside the Port of Spain Parliament building on Abercromby Street one day after the clash, Padarath, who also serves as the Member of Parliament for Couva South, pushed back hard against claims that his decision to photograph the technician was intended to intimidate parliamentary staff. He explained that the snapshot was taken solely for identification purposes, rooted in a simmering dispute over alleged improper muting of government lawmakers’ microphones during proceedings.

    During the Friday committee session, UNC government representatives raised formal complaints that their microphones had been cut off unexpectedly while they were attempting to speak. Padarath subsequently approached the technical staff member responsible for managing the chamber’s audio system and captured the photograph. The interaction immediately devolved into shouting matches between government and opposition lawmakers across the floor of the House of Representatives, turning a routine committee meeting into a high-stakes partisan standoff.

    Padarath defended his choice to photograph the staff member, noting that identification is a required step for any formal complaint brought before Parliament’s Broadcasting Committee. “It is the only way that we can identify them, because we don’t know the staff of the Parliament,” he told reporters. He stressed that the act was never meant to function as an intimidation tactic: “It was meant just to identify where the possible challenges are, so when we go to the Broadcasting Committee, we can say, ‘Well, these are the technicians. These are the persons who were muting the mics at that point in time.’”

    Pressed on the combative tone his party has taken in Parliament amid the ongoing dispute, Padarath rejected any suggestion that the UNC’s approach was inappropriate. “Politics is not a tea party; the war is on and the UNC will not roll over and play dead,” he stated. He added that the ruling party has endured unfair treatment and biased procedural practices for far too long, and that the incident was simply meant to draw public attention to ongoing problems inside and outside the legislature.

    The Couva South MP also dismissed opposition demands for a criminal investigation into his conduct, arguing that PNM lawmakers were only using the incident as a distraction from inflammatory comments made by one of their own colleagues. He fired back by calling for a criminal probe into PNM MP Kareem Marcelle, questioning whether Marcelle’s recent remarks amounted to sedition.

    The comments in question date back to a PNM public rally held Thursday night at the Laventille Community Centre, where Marcelle accused the UNC-led government of using the “PNM” label as a racial slur targeting Afro-Trinidadians. Marcelle declared at the rally: “They don’t like we, and they will never like we. But I want them to know that we don’t like them and we will never like them.” He went further, claiming that “Whenever they say ‘PNM people’ on social media, to me, it is the new N-word. They hate African people. They hate black people…A bunch of racist clowns in this country.”

    Over the weekend, Padarath doubled down on his position, saying he was “ready for war” and accusing the PNM of deflecting attention from what he labeled Marcelle’s “racist and seditious” comments.

    PNM MP Stuart Young, representing Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West, pushed back against Padarath’s framing during his own press briefing outside Parliament Monday. Young questioned the meaning of Padarath’s repeated “war” rhetoric, asking: “Is it a war against public servants? Is it a war against independent parliamentary staff? That is the question that needs to be asked.”

    Young said he was speaking on behalf of all “civic-minded and right-thinking citizens of Trinidad and Tobago” to condemn any and all attacks on non-partisan parliamentary staff and public servants. He noted that all elected parliamentarians have a duty to uphold the standards of public office, even within the inherently adversarial structure of the Westminster parliamentary system.

    While Young acknowledged that robust partisan clash is a normal part of legislative debate, he argued that Friday’s incident crossed a fundamental line. “What we saw on Friday is not in that category. Parliamentarians on either side of the aisle thrusting against each other is expected,” he said. “That was a line crossed.”

    Addressing the core complaint of improper mic muting, Young clarified that the audio system operates according to long-standing, standard parliamentary procedure. “Once a person has the floor, that is the person whose mic is going to be on. The Speaker will stand up, the Speaker’s mic will be on and everybody’s mic is off; so it is whoever has the floor and command of the floor and it is their turn to speak,” he explained. “Everybody’s mic can’t be turned on at the same time, so there’s absolutely nothing abnormal with that.”

    Young concluded by accusing the current ruling UNC of exploiting procedural questions to force their uninvited comments onto the official parliamentary record, a practice he said runs counter to established legislative norms.

  • Plane that went missing en route to Tobago found

    Plane that went missing en route to Tobago found

    KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent — Authorities from St. Vincent and the Grenadines announced Monday that the Dominican-registered aircraft that vanished over the Southern Caribbean during a flight to Tobago over the weekend has been successfully located, with all people on board confirmed alive. Deputy Prime Minister and National Security Minister St. Clair Leacock shared the update during a public radio interview, confirming that coordinated search efforts by international, regional, and local security agencies led to the discovery of the twin-engine plane. However, he declined to disclose the exact site where the aircraft was found.

    According to an official statement released by the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Sustainable Development, the aircraft, a Beechcraft B58T or 58P Pressurized Baron registered as HI-1145, departed Argyle International Airport in St. Vincent at 11:52 a.m. local time this past Friday. Two people were on board when the plane took off, and it was scheduled to complete its 65-minute flight and land at ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago shortly after departure.

    Leacock told radio listeners that he had maintained constant communication with local police leadership and key regional security bodies throughout the search operation. These partners included the Barbados-headquartered Regional Security System (RSS) and the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (Impacs), a security arm of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) based in Trinidad. He confirmed that authorities have already compiled identifying information on the people connected to the missing flight, but stated that “I cannot share all of the information that we have on it.”

    The senior official explained that disclosing sensitive operational details at this stage could put ongoing investigative work by participating agencies at risk. He added that intelligence and security teams are continuing to closely monitor the situation to determine next steps. Notably, Leacock emphasized that authorities are prioritizing the people on the aircraft rather than the plane itself, noting “aircraft don’t fly [by] itself — [it is] the people who fly in that aircraft” that are the central focus of the ongoing operation, as officials work to determine an appropriate course of action moving forward.

    Before all contact with the plane was lost, it was being tracked via the popular public flight monitoring platform Flightradar24. Data from the site showed the aircraft was operating under visual flight rules, cruising at an altitude of 4,025 feet with a ground speed of 142 knots. Tracking signals cut off abruptly mid-flight over the Southern Caribbean Sea, with the last known signal placing the aircraft in the vicinity of Grenadian or Venezuelan territorial waters.

  • Missing plane heading for Tobago has been located

    Missing plane heading for Tobago has been located

    A missing small twin-engine aircraft that vanished mid-flight between St Vincent and Tobago has been successfully located, with no loss of life reported, according to top security officials from St Vincent and the Grenadines. Deputy Prime Minister and National Security Minister Major St Clair Leacock confirmed the breakthrough in an interview on a local radio program Monday, but has kept key details including the plane’s exact location and the events that led to its disappearance under wraps. Leacock emphasized that sensitive operational details cannot be released to the public at this stage, as disclosing information could jeopardize the active security probe still underway. Unlike conventional search efforts that prioritize recovering the aircraft first, authorities are centering their work on the two people who were on board when the plane went missing. “Aircraft do not pilot themselves, so our priority is the individuals aboard this flight, not the machine itself,” Leacock explained. Since the aircraft was reported missing on Friday, Leacock said he has maintained continuous communication with local police leadership, the Regional Security System (RSS), and the Caribbean Community Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM IMPACS) to coordinate the response. Leacock’s announcement came just hours after Trinidad and Tobago’s Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Eli Zakour publicly stated that search operations remained the government’s top priority, and that no contact had been established with the missing craft at that time. Zakour shared flight details that identified the plane as a Beechcraft Baron 58, registered under the name HI-1145 to the Dominican Republic. It departed Argyle International Airport in St Vincent at 11:52 a.m. Friday, carrying two people on a scheduled 65-minute flight bound for ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago. Records confirm the aircraft was fueled for roughly five hours of flight time, far exceeding the duration of the planned journey. The last recorded radio contact with the plane happened at approximately 12:11 p.m. through Argyle Approach Control, just moments before all communication cut off unexpectedly. Immediately after contact was lost, Piarco Area Control Centre activated full emergency search-and-rescue protocols, launching a coordinated operation with the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard and multiple regional search-and-rescue organizations. Both private and military aircraft were dispatched to scour the plane’s last recorded position, but initial search teams returned without finding any wreckage or visual signs of the downed craft. Flight tracking data from popular aviation monitoring platform Flightradar24 shows the twin-engine plane was operating under visual flight rules, cruising at an altitude of roughly 4,025 feet at a speed of 142 knots, before tracking stopped abruptly over the southern Caribbean Sea. In the days before its disappearance, the plane is reported to have operated without any mechanical issues, completing multiple routine flights between the island of Canouan and mainland St Vincent. To date, neither Leacock nor any participating regional authority have released additional details: the location of the recovered plane, the current condition of the two people on board, and whether any formal criminal investigation has been opened remain undisclosed. The full circumstances that led to the plane’s disappearance remain the subject of an active, ongoing investigation.

  • Couple in ICU after attack that killed 13-year-old

    Couple in ICU after attack that killed 13-year-old

    A deadly shooting that left a 13-year-old dead at a Marabella residential property on Thursday night has left two injured adults in a precarious medical state, with the pair still receiving critical care at the San Fernando General Hospital’s intensive care unit. The young victim, Krishan Khanhai, was pronounced dead at the scene of the attack, which unfolded at a home on Tramline Road in Union Park East. The two wounded victims—43-year-old Krishna Khanhai and 53-year-old Leela Pariag—were rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment following the gunfire, while a 5-year-old child who escaped to a nearby neighbor’s house escaped the incident uninjured. Law enforcement investigators working the case have said they believe the shooting was carried out during an attempted or completed robbery at the home of the couple, who worked as local street food vendors selling doubles, a popular local flatbread wrap dish. When first responders arrived at the property, crime scene investigators recovered three spent 9mm bullet casings from the area of the shooting. A close relative of the injured couple, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the pair’s condition remains unstable as they receive ongoing intensive care. The relative declined to share further details about the incident or the family’s reaction to the violence, only reiterating that the two wounded adults were not showing signs of improvement as of the latest update from medical teams. Local residents have expressed shock over the violent incident in the quiet residential community, with law enforcement yet to announce any arrests or identify potential suspects connected to the shooting. Investigators are still reviewing evidence collected from the crime scene and interviewing witnesses to piece together the sequence of events that led to the fatal attack.

  • Court slams State over  refusal of cotton bills

    Court slams State over refusal of cotton bills

    A landmark constitutional ruling handed down by the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago on Friday has confirmed that the state unlawfully violated the fundamental constitutional rights of a 76-year-old citizen, who was stranded abroad by Covid-19 border closures and denied an opportunity to exchange $10,000 in old cotton-paper $100 banknotes for the new polymer currency after a 2019 demonetization program.

    The claim was originally brought by Shantee Nanan, who passed away in November 2024 while the case was still pending. Following her death, the court appointed her son Edison Nanan to step in and represent her estate through the conclusion of proceedings. Justice Devindra Rampersad, who delivered the final judgment, found that the former People’s National Movement (PNM) administration’s administration of the late currency redemption regime outlined in the Central Bank Act fell short of constitutional requirements, breaching Nanan’s rights to due process and equal protection under the law.

    The root of the dispute stretches back to the 2019 demonetization of the old $100 cotton banknotes. Nanan did not challenge the legality of the demonetization program itself or the enabling legislation that put it into place. Instead, her grievance centered on the state’s refusal to fairly apply the statutory relief mechanism created to assist citizens who could not meet the redemption deadline for legitimate, unforeseen reasons.

    In 2019, Nanan traveled abroad to care for her husband, who was suffering from a serious illness, before she herself became unwell shortly after her arrival. When the government of Trinidad and Tobago abruptly closed its national borders in March 2020 to slow the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, Nanan was barred from reentering the country until January 2021—months after the statutory deadline for exchanging old banknotes had passed. Upon her return home, she found $10,000 in demonetized notes stored among her personal belongings, which the state refused to exchange when she applied for an extension.

    Court proceedings revealed critical context about how the redemption relief power was being administered by the Ministry of Finance. Between 2019 and January 2024, 94 separate applications for extensions of time to redeem old notes were submitted under Section 27A(5) of the Central Bank Act—and not a single one was approved. Justice Rampersad found that this consistent track record proved the existence of a settled, unwritten policy of blanket refusal, even though Parliament had explicitly granted the executive discretion to approve relief for qualifying, deserving cases.

    The state mounted a robust defense of its policy, arguing that the claim was legally flawed from its inception. State attorneys contended that because Nanan had accepted the constitutionality of the demonetization program itself and did not bring a challenge to the proportionality of the legislation, there was no unlawful policy open to judicial review. They further argued that the case involved only the application of enacted law, not an independent unlawful policy that could be overturned by the courts.

    Citing evidence from former minister Stuart Young, the state also emphasized that the demonetization initiative was implemented to disrupt illegal cash transactions and combat organized crime, noting that roughly $500 million in old banknotes remained unredeemed and unaccounted for. Allowing any portion of this currency back into circulation, the defense argued, would fundamentally undermine the core national security and anti-crime objectives of the program, and asking the court to order redemption would improperly force the judiciary to overstep into executive policy-making.

    Justice Rampersad rejected all of the state’s arguments outright, dismissing them as a “procedural dead end.” In his ruling, he emphasized that a statutory power created specifically to relieve hardship cannot lawfully be exercised as a blanket, unchanging refusal behind secret, unpublicized criteria that are never disclosed to the public.

    “A statutory power to relieve deserving cases, operated as a settled and invariable refusal behind criteria that were never formulated, much less published, is not the exercise of a discretion at all,” the judge wrote in his judgment. “It is precisely the species of arbitrariness which takes a complaint out of the ordinary run of administrative law and into the realm of the Constitution.”

    The justice found that by operating the relief scheme in what he termed a “procedural vacuum,” the executive unlawfully restricted the discretion that Parliament had intentionally created to protect citizens from harsh or unforeseen consequences of new legislation. This arbitrary action, the court ruled, directly violated Nanan’s constitutional rights to property ownership and protection under the law.

    “It is one thing for the State to decline to relieve a person who simply allowed the period to elapse,” Justice Rampersad explained. “It is another thing entirely to deprive a person who had good reason of any means of having that reason considered, by operating the relieving discretion as a blanket refusal behind criteria that were never formulated much less published or disclosed.”

    While the judge acknowledged that the state has a legitimate, critical interest in combating financial crime and protecting national security, he held that these goals cannot serve as a blanket justification for abandoning core principles of procedural fairness.

    As a remedy for the constitutional violation, the High Court ordered the state to pay Nanan’s estate $10,000 in compensatory damages equal to the face value of the unredeemed notes, plus 2.5% annual interest running from March 18, 2022—the date the original claim was filed—through the date of the final judgment. The court also awarded an additional $30,000 in vindicatory damages, a penalty designed to acknowledge the severity of the constitutional breach and deter the executive from continuing to use secret, arbitrary policy practices in the future. The state was further ordered to cover all of the claimant’s legal costs, which will be assessed by the Registrar of the High Court if the two parties cannot reach a mutual agreement on the amount.

  • RideShare driver mows down hijacker

    RideShare driver mows down hijacker

    A daring pre-planned robbery attempt targeting a TT rideshare driver in Laventille ended in failure over the weekend, after the quick-thinking driver used his car to strike one of his would-be attackers and escaped unharmed. The injured suspect was later taken into police custody after seeking hospital treatment.

    The 29-year-old driver told local law enforcement that the incident unfolded on Saturday night, shortly after he picked up two female passengers at Port of Spain’s Independence Square just after 9:15 p.m. Operating a white MG vehicle, the driver followed the passengers’ directions to Wharton Branch Road in Laventille, unaware he was walking into a pre-arranged trap, according to preliminary investigative findings.

    When the vehicle reached the requested destination, one of the two women exited the car first. Almost immediately, two armed men emerged from cover and approached the vehicle. One of the men, who was carrying a loaded firearm, publicly declared a robbery and ordered the driver to hand over all his valuables.

    Instead of complying with the robbers’ demands, the driver acted instinctively and hit the gas to make an emergency escape. In the chaotic retreat, his vehicle collided with one of the two attackers. As the driver sped out of the area, the remaining gunman opened fire on the departing vehicle, firing multiple rounds in an attempt to stop him. The second female passenger, who had stayed in the vehicle during the confrontation, also fled the scene on foot after the driver escaped.

    Remarkably, the driver emerged from the entire ordeal without any injuries. He immediately made his way to a safe location and filed an official report with the police department. Responding officers who arrived at the ambush site recovered a spent 9mm bullet casing from the ground, and forensics teams conducted a full examination of the driver’s vehicle to collect evidence for the ongoing investigation.

    Law enforcement later tracked down the 19-year-old suspect struck by the driver’s vehicle when he arrived at Port of Spain General Hospital to seek medical care for his injuries. The suspect is currently being held at a police station as investigators continue working to identify and locate the other three accomplices still at large, including the second male attacker and the two female passengers who helped set up the ambush.

  • Ceiling hideout ends in fatal police shooting

    Ceiling hideout ends in fatal police shooting

    A multi-crime suspect linked to disturbing social media footage of weapons violations was shot and killed by Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) officers during a tactical arrest operation in San Fernando’s Union Hall neighborhood last Tuesday, official police records confirm. Twenty-one-year-old Damian Lewis, who had been named as a person of interest in an array of serious offenses ranging from home invasion and theft to sexual violence against a minor, was tracked to Apartment 3A of Building 32 in the Cypress Ridge residential complex after law enforcement received credible intelligence on his location.

    Arriving at the property just after 12:15 p.m., the two responding officers immediately identified themselves as law enforcement to the people inside the apartment and notified them of the planned enforcement action. A search of the space revealed Lewis had concealed himself in the apartment’s ceiling cavity. The suspect eventually lost his footing and fell through the drywall into an adjacent room, and according to official police accounts, he immediately drew a loaded weapon and pointed it directly at the attending officers.

    Facing an imminent threat to their safety, the two officers followed TTPS protocol for use of force, each firing a single round from their issued service pistols toward Lewis. The suspect was hit in the chest and leg, causing him to drop the firearm. Officers secured the scene, seized the weapon, and rushed Lewis to San Fernando General Hospital in an official police vehicle. Despite emergency intervention, Lewis was pronounced dead at 2:08 p.m. that same day.

    During the search of the apartment, law enforcement took a second man into custody on charges of illegal ammunition possession. Forensic examination of the seized weapon identified it as a Smith and Wesson pistol with partially erased serial numbers, loaded with 12 9-millimeter rounds ready for firing. The incident remains part of a standard procedural review consistent with police policy for officer-involved shootings.

  • Chamber:  Cut red tape,  boost growth

    Chamber: Cut red tape, boost growth

    As the government of Trinidad and Tobago prepares for its upcoming mid-year budget review, the head of the Greater San Fernando Chamber of Commerce (GSFCC) is calling on policymakers to seize this critical moment to reinvigorate business confidence and build a more robust foundation for sustained national economic expansion.

    In an exclusive interview with local outlet Express on Wednesday, GSFCC President Kiran Singh outlined the business community’s clear priorities for the budget adjustment, emphasizing that local entrepreneurs and industry leaders are waiting for actionable, growth-focused policy measures that support business scaling, strengthen national competitiveness, and set Trinidad and Tobago on a path toward long-term economic prosperity.

    While Singh recognized that recent evaluations from major international financial bodies have delivered moderately positive signals about the country’s economic trajectory, he did not shy away from highlighting the ongoing headwinds that still hold many local businesses back. Persistent structural barriers, from restricted access to hard currency and steadily climbing operational costs to widespread public safety concerns and slow, cumbersome bureaucratic processes, continue to hinder business activity and deter new investment, Singh explained. Resolving these long-standing frictions, he added, is a non-negotiable prerequisite to upgrading the national business climate and unlocking greater capital inflows.

    Among the GSFCC’s key policy asks are targeted support programs for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which form the backbone of the local private sector. The chamber is also pushing for expanded access to affordable financing and foreign exchange, tax and regulatory incentives to encourage private investment and company-wide digital transformation, and sustained, coordinated efforts to diversify Trinidad and Tobago’s economy beyond its traditional core sectors. Singh specifically highlighted growth opportunities in manufacturing, agro-processing, tourism, and non-energy exports, areas that could create new jobs and reduce the country’s economic vulnerability to global energy market volatility.

    Singh also voiced support for a targeted, limited-time tax amnesty scheme that would allow businesses and individual taxpayers to bring their outstanding tax obligations into compliance without facing crippling, excessive penalties. According to Singh, this policy would deliver triple benefits: it would improve overall national tax compliance rates, provide much-needed breathing room for businesses already struggling to stay afloat, and generate immediate additional revenue for the government to fund public investments. He added that delayed VAT refunds remain a particularly pressing pain point for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the country, a problem the government must address to keep small businesses operational.

    Beyond fiscal measures, Singh emphasized that stronger national security enforcement, streamlined and digitized government services, and a transparent, clearly articulated long-term roadmap for fiscal stability and inclusive economic development are all critical to attracting both domestic and foreign direct investment, and to creating high-quality, sustainable employment opportunities for local workers.

    Repeating the business community’s core message, Singh stressed that local industry is not looking for piecemeal or symbolic policy changes. What stakeholders need is practical, targeted action that removes barriers to growth, strengthens competitiveness, and positions Trinidad and Tobago to compete and thrive in the post-pandemic global economy. The mid-year budget review, he said, is the ideal opportunity for the government to deliver on these priorities and signal its commitment to private sector-led growth.