(Trinidad & Tobago’s Newsday) – A woman dressed in Muslim clothing, who was given a special visit to one of the escapees at the Port of Spain Prison at mid-morning on Friday, has been identified as the person who allegedly smuggled two pistols and a hand grenade into the prison without being detected.
Newsday was told by sources that the woman who provided a false name and false identification documents to the prison authorities, was able to smuggle the weapons because she was not scanned properly.
Police investigators believe that the woman may have been assisted by at least two prison officers aligned to Allan “Scanny” Martin and the other escapees.
It is believed that after the weapons were smuggled into the prison and given to Martin. He then gave one gun to one of the others said to be Hassan Atwell while he himself took possession of one of the weapons. The hand grenade was given to Christopher Selby who was also armed with improvised weapons.
After the woman, who stayed for less than half an hour, left the prison the escape plan went into action at about 12.30 pm when the three prisoners shot their way out of the compound and escaped. As they exited the prison, PC Sherman Maynard and Cpl Francis of the Port of Spain Divisional Task Force, who were driving along Frederick Street in a marked police vehicle, came under fire by the prisoners.
