Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has issued a warning to criminals, their financiers and facilitators, declaring that \u201cno money, status or political connections\u201d will protect them as the Government continues its crime-fighting campaign following the end of the State of Emergency.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Parliament while introducing the Special Operations Bill 2026, Persad-Bissessar said the conclusion of the State of Emergency would not provide a sanctuary for people involved in criminal networks.<\/p>\n
She said her Government intends to pursue not only people directly involved in violent crime but also those financing and facilitating criminal activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will find you. We will dismantle your networks,\u201d Persad-Bissessar said.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister said authorities would seek to seize illegal drugs, firearms and criminal proceeds and bring accused offenders before the courts.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo money, status or political connections will save you,\u201d she declared.<\/p>\n
Persad-Bissessar also accused the former PNM administration of presiding over what she described as a \u201ctwo-tier justice system\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said her Government intends to dismantle what she described as unequal treatment under that system. The allegation was made by the Prime Minister during her parliamentary presentation.<\/p>\n
Persad-Bissessar said her administration would uphold the Constitution and due process but would not apologise for placing law-abiding citizens first.<\/p>\n
She pointed specifically to families affected by violent crime, businesses facing extortion, young people threatened by gangs and residents living in communities affected by criminal activity.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister argued that gangs which impose illegal curfews, extort businesses, recruit children and force families from their homes are attempting to exercise criminal control over communities.<\/p>\n
She said the Government intends to use the proposed Special Operations framework to target alleged gunmen as well as the drugs, weapons and money supporting organised criminal activity.<\/p>\n
Persad-Bissessar repeatedly declared that criminals and gangs would not prevail under her administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder my UNC Government, the criminals will not prevail. Under my UNC Government, the gangs will not prevail. Under my UNC Government, law and order will prevail,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She added that safety and the people of Trinidad and Tobago would prevail and pledged that her administration would do everything it could to make the country safer.<\/p>\n
Persad-Bissessar said the Government would \u201cleave no stone unturned\u201d in pursuing criminals, drug traffickers and human traffickers.<\/p>\n
Her warning came as the Government prepares to debate the Special Operations Bill 2026, which is intended to replace nationwide emergency measures with targeted security operations in designated areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kamla warns criminals no money, status or political connections will save them from justice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}