The Attorney General in seeking a three month extension of the State of Emergency paints a grim picture, confirming reports of explosives in the hands of violent criminals bent on attacking state institutions.
00:00Attorney General John Jeremy leads the debate seeking a three-month extension of the state of emergency.
00:07He recounted the intelligence which showed behind the bars ringleaders were behind a plot to assassinate state actors.
00:15They were, he said, removed and relocated to a secure location and a raid of the maximum security prison led to recovered cell phones and accessories.
00:26Operations and investigations are ongoing to gather intelligence and to capture members of this syndicate who are involved in threats against the state actors.
00:38AG Jeremy made this comment about an Express article detailing that explosives, grenades and high-powered rifles were smuggled from South America to be used in artillery strikes against the TTPS, members of the judiciary and the director of public prosecutions.
00:57I don't have control over the press, but the report was factually, largely speaking, correct.
01:09And the threat is a very rare threat, as the journalists identified.
01:17Without detailing further information, the AG says.
01:21Many of us may not have been here today.
01:27Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank the services, the police service, the army and the prisons particularly
01:34for the actions that they took on the 18th of July, beginning on the 18th of July
01:44and continuing thereafter to secure all of us in this chamber and to secure the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
01:54And along with intended targets, many others may have been killed along the way.
02:01Now that enterprise was determined to assassinate persons in critical positions in this country.
02:09We have shared some of that information and some of that intelligence with those individuals.
02:23We have not made them public for obvious reasons.
02:27The crime was, the plan was to attack buildings to generally hobble the justice system.
02:37He says the groups outside have united and they are taking instructions from those behind the prison wall.
02:44He calls them well-armed, in possession of explosives, including C4.
02:50And regarding a viral voice note on kidnappings, the AG says.
02:55We had nothing to do with leaking it, but it tells a particular story.
02:59That too is authentic.
03:00I tried to suppress it because there were individuals mentioned who could have been identified
03:10and who were not yet in the possession of the security forces.
03:16Prisons have become criminal command centers, though there are many good officers.
03:23At times, AG Jeremy says attirees too are involved in the violent web.
03:27Those locations that they were removed to were very recently also infiltrated by two drones.
03:39The attorney general says the government possesses the political will to deal with the matter head first
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