00:00A total of 15 persons, including the director of a construction company who is believed to have been operating an illegal quarry, was arrested on Thursday morning by the TTPS.
00:11Commissioner of Police Alistair Guevara described the operation as a culmination of years of dedicated police work,
00:18targeting a multifaceted criminal enterprise that does illegal quarrying and mining while operating an illegal processing plant without a license.
00:27According to the commissioner, illegal quarrying not only damages the environment and this country's landscape, but it's also a multi-million dollar business that many profit from.
00:39This essentially is robbing Trinidad and Tobago, you and I and our grandparents and grandchildren and everybody to come after for our patrimony.
00:47They are removing the material which belongs to the state and even before they get to this portion, there were trees, this was pristine forests where wildlife used to be roaming free.
00:57What that has essentially done, it has raped the treasury of Trinidad and Tobago of millions of dollars that these people now use gang affiliations to keep away from their monetized efforts.
01:10Acting Superintendent Haynes, who led the operational planning, said the TTPS shifted its strategy in recent times.
01:17We have been arresting persons for this type of offenses all over the country, but it did not seem to having any deterrent facts.
01:29So it wasn't even a deterrent for the illegal activity.
01:33What we have started with the instructions from the commissioner and the DCP is to do an investigation straight up to the persons who are running the operation, the persons who are getting the most amount of money from the operation.
01:48In other words, we were saying prior to this, we were just arresting the excavator driver and the truck driver.
01:54We have now conducted in-depth investigation following the activity to where the money lies.
02:00Superintendent Haynes said the operation was a result of more than a year of coordinated investigation with the Director of Minerals, as it is an offense under the Minerals Act.
02:11He added that because of the size of the land, the police will be working with the Land and Survey Department to determine the boundaries between state and private land.
02:21Investigations are still ongoing and the matter is expected to be taken to court.
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