00:00With the country having recorded 470 murders for the year thus far, many are looking to
00:06the upcoming budget presentation to see what plans are in place to address the crime situation.
00:13Criminologist Darius Figueroa believes the introduction of another transnational crime
00:18entity has aggravated the crime situation, resulting in the reckless acts of violence
00:23we see today.
00:25In Trinidad and Tobago today, we have four different expressions of gangland.
00:32You have those who are affiliated with the Colombians, those who are affiliated with
00:35the Mexicans.
00:37You have one grouping who is holding on to whatever they could get from the Colombians.
00:44And then you have a huge grouping of persons who are displaced.
00:50They belong to none of the above.
00:52And a lot of the spontaneous, reckless violence is coming out of this dispossessed group.
01:01So therefore you have to understand what is transnational organized crime and how it operates
01:06in Trinidad and Tobago.
01:07But presently, we are living in a society in denial.
01:12All we speak about is gangs.
01:15And although national security usually attracts a large sum of the fiscal pie, Figueroa believes
01:21widespread reform of the national security apparatus is what is needed for a meaningful
01:27change.
01:28For the TTPS, you have serious reform because we are still not touching the four horsemen
01:35of the TTP apocalypse.
01:37The issue of promotion, the issue of internal discipline, the issue of command and control,
01:44and the issue of organized crime within the TTPS.
01:48Figueroa is also calling for an armed unit of Customs and Excise and Immigration.
01:54That are specifically trained and operationalized for enforcement, where they will use the extensive
02:04powers they have under law to protect our borders.
02:09Customs and Excise and Immigration have more power over our borders than the TTPS.
02:16So they must be weaponized, they must have an enforcement arm of both of them.
02:22In fact, both of them are supposed to be joined together.
02:26The criminologist further notes with concern that all of the Coast Guard's large operational
02:32vessels are currently out of service.
02:35With the Coast Guard, you have a serious problem with your equipment, your ships of the line.
02:42Right now, we have not a single ship of the line in the water.
02:46So that's serious questions to be asked.
02:48Do you think that that is by chance?
02:51Well, if it is deliberate, that means the Coast Guard then has to be disbanded and rebuilt
02:59from the ground.
03:00Last year, National Security received the third largest budget allocation, at just over
03:06$6.9 billion.
03:08Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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