(Trinidad Guardian) A popular soca artiste has been questioned by senior officials of the Customs and Excise Division for his purported involvement in a well-organised diesel racket operation on the high seas. The artiste, in the soca industry for more than 17 years, is the owner of a boat. He was interrogated extensively yesterday at the Customs and Excise Building, Port-of-Spain, and subsequently released. The latest twist to the diesel racket probe has come on the heels of the seizure of two more vessels by members of the Coast Guard. The vessels were intercepted around noon on Tuesday at Waterloo and subsequently taken to the headquarters of the T&T Coast Guard, Staubles Bay, Chaguaramas.
Senior Coast Guard officials said the probe was triggered after a fuel tanker was being monitored for several weeks by police officers from the Couva Police Station. The officers informed the Coast Guard the tanker was often spotted at a small jetty at Brickfield, Waterloo. The Coast Guard then dispatched a fast patrol vessel, CG 16, and Interceptor O25 to the jetty to conduct further investigations. Coast Guard members reportedly caught crew members of the pirogue off-loading the diesel onto the other vessel, which was described as a “long liner black hull vessel.”
Public relations officer of the T&T Coast Guard, Lieutenant Kirk Jean-Baptiste, also confirmed two Indonesians were found on board the long liner vessel and two Trinidadians, who were on board the pirogue, have been detained for questioning. After searching the pirogue, Coast Guard members discovered three compartments for storing diesel. The long liner vessel, they said, was equipped with a pump, used in gas stations, attached to a large tank which stored the diesel. Jean-Baptiste said: “There was a very strong smell of diesel on board the vessel. We found a pump used in gas stations where number readings could be taken to determine how much diesel was being pumped out a litre. “The entire device appeared to be very modern and well constructed,” Jean-Baptiste explained.
The vessels were intercepted less than 12 hours after members of the Coast Guard intercepted and impounded two trawlers reportedly used in a diesel racket. On Thursday, a Coast Guard fast patrol craft was on routine patrol in the Gulf of Paria when officers spotted two fishing trawlers lying “low” in the water. More than 100,000 gallons of diesel was discovered and Coast Guard officers believed it was part of a racket in which the fuel was bought at subsidised prices and traded on the high seas for near market value.
Jean-Baptiste said such incidents involving the illegal sale of diesel were commonplace as members of the Coast Guard have held several perpetrators in the past. “We have matters pending before the courts right now,” Jean-Baptiste added. He said the illegal diesel trade was a lucrative business.
