(Trinidad Guardian) Officials within the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) have uncovered an alleged plot to kill Police Commissioner Gary Griffith, Supt Roger Alexander and members of the Special Operations Response Team (SORT).
According to intelligence, the assassins are allegedly former members of the Venezuelan military (National army of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela).
The information which was contained in a confidential document—titled Alert, Plot To Kill TTPS Officers—was forwarded to senior security officials with the recommendation that “A duty of care should be performed on the Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, Superintendent of Police Roger Alexander and senior and junior police officers attached to the Special Operations Response Team (SORT).”
The plot, the intelligence revealed, was hatched by gang members targeting officers “for retaliatory violence.” It was revealed that leaders of criminal gangs in T&T have allegedly contracted Venezuelan hitmen to assassinate the officers.
The document read, “It is unknown when and where the planned executions would take place however, their modus operandi includes the use of overt surveillance on their intended targets, most likely utilising motorcycles.”
The intelligence revealed surveillance was performed on “Superintendent Alexander during his daily routine in the Croisee, San Juan, area recently.”
SORT intelligence analysts advised that the intended targets should be informed of this pending threat against their lives. They further advised that the CoP, the superintendent and SORT officers, “along with their families exercise extreme situational awareness when carrying out their day-to-day activities.”
They also noted that “threats like these should not be taken lightly.”
They claimed this latest intelligence “signalled a frightening new escalation in the already heightened tensions between the police and gang members of the Rasta City Alliance Group (RCAG) and Muslim Gangs after the police-involved shooting last weekend in the Morvant district.”
The shootings sparked off a series of coordinated protests on Tuesday as residents from many of the impoverished communities across Trinidad joined together to demand greater restraint and accountability by the police.
This is not the first time that Griffith’s life has been threatened.
Back in May, a social media message posted to the Instagram page of an alleged gangster demanded Griffith release three men who had been detained at the Four Roads Police Station and if he failed to comply, his house would be subjected to “bullet”.
Also tagged in that post was Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and National Security Minister Stuart Young.
In response to the post, Griffith challenged them to make good on their threats as he promised a simple apology would not be enough to free them.
In November 2018, a 12-year-old primary schoolboy from the East Port-of-Spain district pleaded guilty to misusing a phone to issue death threats against Griffith
That incident occurred around the same time that a separate investigation was being carried out after a caller threatened to kill both the CoP and his wife, Nicole.
In 2010 as he led the North Eastern Divisional Task Force, Alexander who was a sergeant at the time, received death threats following the deaths of three Sea Lots residents.
Contacted for comment, Griffith did not confirm if he was aware of the threat.