Joshua Seemu­n­gal

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia In­ves­tiga­tive Jour­nal­ist

joshua.seemu­n­gal@guardian.co.tt

The ap­point­ment of an ex­ter­nal in­ves­tiga­tive team to probe the miss­ing am­mu­ni­tion from the Cu­mu­to Bar­racks high­lights a con­cern­ing lack of trust in the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF), ac­cord­ing to crim­i­nol­o­gist Dau­rius Figueira.

“If you bring in ex­ter­nal peo­ple to in­ves­ti­gate, you have now gone and politi­cised it be­cause you are send­ing the mes­sage that you don’t re­al­ly trust them. Re­mem­ber you have a chain of com­mand there. That is a mil­i­tary or­gan­i­sa­tion, so how could you bring ex­ter­nals to come and in­ves­ti­gate?

“What is it? A court mar­tial? The tra­di­tion in mil­i­tary law is that when you call in peo­ple ex­ter­nal to the mil­i­tary struc­ture to in­ves­ti­gate, you are look­ing to court mar­tial. You are say­ing you have no con­fi­dence in them,” he told the Sun­day Guardian last week.

Less than two years af­ter TTDF In­spec­tor Gen­er­al Shel­don Ram­nanan told a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC) of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty that an au­dit ac­count­ed for all am­mu­ni­tion and arms, a team was ap­point­ed by the Cab­i­net just over a week ago to in­ves­ti­gate the al­leged dis­ap­pear­ance of more than 25,000 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion from the Cu­mu­to Bar­racks.

Since 2022, Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) in­ves­ti­ga­tors have found TTDF-marked shells on sev­er­al crime scenes, in­clud­ing gang-re­lat­ed killings.

In Au­gust 2022, 5.56 mm bul­lets be­long­ing to the Air Guard, used in high-pow­ered weapons like AR-15s, were re­cov­ered on the scene of the Aranguez mur­ders of Rosanne Granger and Acori Ma­son. That month, reg­i­ment bul­lets were al­so found at the site of the Mor­vant mur­der of Gamal Wal­dron. In No­vem­ber 2022, reg­i­ment bul­lets were fired at the Point Fortin home of Jame­son Samuel.

In De­cem­ber 2023, the TTPS re­cov­ered TTDF bul­lets at four crime scenes, in­clud­ing the mur­der of Jabari Williams. Last Wednes­day, it was re­port­ed, crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­cov­ered TTDF-marked am­mu­ni­tion at the scene of a Tabaquite mur­der.

“That is very dis­turb­ing to the De­fence Force to un­der­stand that is hap­pen­ing there be­cause of what we stand for. It is not some­thing we are tak­ing light­ly. We are work­ing with the TTPS to see and work on ad­dress­ing that is­sue. In terms of what mea­sures we have in place, from in­cep­tion, the mil­i­tary has al­ways had strin­gent mea­sures in place when it comes to arms and am­mu­ni­tion. The chal­lenge is the hu­man fac­tor is part of it,” Chief of De­fence Staff Daniel said be­fore a JSC in May 2023.

“We are very chal­lenged to un­der­stand how am­mu­ni­tion is ap­pear­ing out there, and the au­dit will ac­count for every­thing that we have. This is, hope­ful­ly, some­thing that will be un­der­stood and com­pre­hend­ed as we con­tin­ue to co­op­er­ate with the po­lice in this in­ves­ti­ga­tion. Be­cause if I have 1,000 rounds and, when I count, there are 1,000, but you are find­ing 100 out­side, some­thing is wrong.”

At that time, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds said that the bul­lets may not have come from the De­fence Force stock.

“When the De­fence Force wants rounds or weapons, it puts out a ten­der, and per­sons bid, and the firearm deal­ers would bid, and you know, it’s in the con­text of pro­cure­ment prac­tices and they are giv­en an op­por­tu­ni­ty, and they are the ones (firearms deal­ers) who im­port,” Hinds said.

In May 2023, be­fore an­oth­er JSC, Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre Act­ing Di­rec­tor Der­rick Sankar said the TTDF shells re­cov­ered at crime scenes might be re­cy­cled af­ter be­ing used on shoot­ing ranges. “This is­sue, the TTPS is ful­ly aware of it. We have been hav­ing meet­ings with the UN for the dis­pos­al of arms and am­mu­ni­tion, putting in stricter guide­lines for dis­pos­al and ac­count­ing for ex­pired am­mu­ni­tion as well … It’s some­thing that’s of para­mount im­por­tance—es­pe­cial­ly se­cur­ing stock­piles and dis­pos­al of stock­piles, which is some­thing (where) there’s a lot of room for im­prove­ment and se­cu­ri­ty to be put in place.”

A year lat­er, in May 2024, with still no clar­i­ty on the is­sue, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Cristo­pher sanc­tioned an au­dit in­to the ar­moury of the reg­i­ment’s Cu­mu­to base.

More than 30 sol­diers charged since 2014

The con­duct of sol­diers has al­so come un­der scruti­ny.

Ac­cord­ing to Guardian Me­dia’s re­search, be­tween Jan­u­ary 2014 and the present, more than 30 TTDF sol­diers faced charges for crimes in­clud­ing mur­der, rob­bery, and as­sault. Ac­cord­ing to Figueira, all over the world, transna­tion­al crime or­gan­i­sa­tions seek out sol­diers be­cause they are the most well-trained shoot­ers. “For ex­am­ple, right now, the sto­ry in the Unit­ed States is of peo­ple who were trained in spe­cial forces and are re­tired and who are re­cruit­ed by transna­tion­al crime ... Af­ter all, who are the best peo­ple to give them jobs with the best re­mu­ner­a­tion pack­ages?” he said.

*Jan­u­ary 2014-An in­ter­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion was launched in­to a pho­to­graph show­ing four sol­diers hold­ing two dead caimans.

*No­vem­ber 2014-Lance Cor­po­ral Branche was charged with un­law­ful de­ten­tion and rob­bery.

*Oc­to­ber 2016-Two dis­charged spe­cial forces mem­bers were charged af­ter be­ing found with four il­le­gal firearms dur­ing a road­block.

*March 2017-Fol­low­ing a for­mal re­port, the TTDF launch­es an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to claims of sex­u­al­ly in­ap­pro­pri­ate be­hav­iour against of­fi­cer cadets at Teteron Bar­racks in Ch­aguara­mas.

*April 2017-A 27-year-old sol­dier was charged with co­caine traf­fick­ing at Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port.

*May 2017-A sol­dier was found shot in his quar­ters at Camp Cu­mu­to. The TTDF launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

*No­vem­ber 2017-A sol­dier, Yasin Ak­il Rasheed-Gill, was charged with the mur­der of busi­ness­man Sais­nar­ine Ning­wah.

*De­cem­ber 2017-29-year-old sol­dier, Ker­ros Mar­tin, was charged with the mur­der of his one-year-old daugh­ter, So­ri­ah, af­ter shoot­ing at the man hold­ing her.

*May 2018-A TTDF of­fi­cer was charged af­ter be­ing ac­cused of sex­u­al­ly as­sault­ing mi­nors.

*Ju­ly 2018-Pri­vate Julien was charged with the mur­der of Ka­reem Wil­son.

*Oc­to­ber 2018-Pri­vate Ed­wards was charged with rob­bery and pos­ses­sion of a firearm and am­mu­ni­tion.

*De­cem­ber 2018-A sol­dier was charged with the hit-and-run death of cy­clist Aaron Thomas near the Cu­mu­to in­ter­sec­tion.

*June 2019-A sol­dier, Akim Brew­ster, was charged with ma­li­cious wound­ing af­ter al­leged­ly as­sault­ing a DJ at a bar.

*Oc­to­ber 2019-A sol­dier was charged with traf­fick­ing co­caine.

*No­vem­ber 2019-A sargeant was charged for the al­leged rape and bug­gery of a male child. De­cem­ber 2019-Sol­dier Ja­mal Blake was charged with pos­ses­sion of a firearm and am­mu­ni­tion to en­dan­ger life.

*March 2020-An army cor­po­ral was found guilty of as­sault and or­dered to pay $4,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to a grand­moth­er.

*June 2020-Two sol­diers charged with abus­ing a home­less man while on pa­trol dur­ing the COVID-19 State of Emer­gency.

*De­cem­ber 2020-Three mem­bers of the De­fence Force were charged with break­ing COVID-19 lock­down reg­u­la­tions af­ter at­tend­ing a La Hor­quet­ta par­ty.

*De­cem­ber 2020-A sol­dier was ar­rest­ed un­der mil­i­tary pro­ce­dures af­ter dis­charg­ing his weapon in­to the air at Camp Og­den in St James.

*May 2021-Sol­dier ar­rest­ed un­der mil­i­tary pro­ce­dures af­ter a video al­leged­ly show­ing him threat­en­ing pub­lic vi­o­lence went vi­ral.

*May 2021-A sol­dier was charged with the pos­ses­sion of a firearm and am­mu­ni­tion and for break­ing quar­an­tine.

*June 2021-Two sol­diers were charged with at­tempt­ing to smug­gle con­tra­band in­to the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison in Arou­ca.

*Au­gust 2021-Four sol­diers were charged for break­ing COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions af­ter at­tend­ing an El So­cor­ro par­ty.

*Feb­ru­ary 2022-A Sol­dier was ques­tioned about the rob­bery of a Cou­va su­per­mar­ket.

*May 2022-Lance Cor­po­ral Mar­tin was charged with forg­ing and ut­ter­ing a fake aca­d­e­m­ic cer­tifi­cate.

*June 2022-Drug Sou Sou founder Ker­ron Clarke, who was an ac­tive TTDF mem­ber at the time of his ar­rest, was charged with mon­ey laun­der­ing. In De­cem­ber 2024 he won an ap­peal to over­turn a mag­is­trate’s de­ci­sion to ex­tend the de­ten­tion of $656,000 un­der the pro­ceeds of crime act. He is al­so su­ing the De­fence Force for wrong­ful dis­missal.

*Oc­to­ber 2022-Two sol­diers were charged with rob­bery with ag­gra­va­tion af­ter rob­bing a woman of $21,000.

*No­vem­ber 2022-A sol­dier was killed af­ter be­ing shot at an army base in La Ro­main. The in­ci­dent was re­port­ed as a sui­cide, but the fam­i­ly de­nies the claim.

*No­vem­ber 2022-Sol­dier Ish­mael Saleem was charged with mur­der and rob­bery.

*June 2023-A sol­dier was charged in con­nec­tion with the dis­ap­pear­ance of a TTDF Galil as­sault ri­fle from Teteron bar­racks in Ch­aguara­mas.

*No­vem­ber 2023-A sol­dier was charged with rob­bing a Ma­yaro fam­i­ly of $67,000.

*Jan­u­ary 2024-Sol­dier Tes­son Brad­shaw was charged with the mur­der of Cal­i­da Scham­ber and her moth­er, Carmeli­ta De Leon.

*March 2024-A sol­dier was charged in con­nec­tion with the ve­hic­u­lar death of Kiss dri­ver Neil Bal­lai.
*May 2024-A Lance Cor­po­ral was charged, ac­cused of steal­ing a cel­lu­lar phone at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port.

*Jan­u­ary 2025-A sol­dier was charged with the pos­ses­sion of a dan­ger­ous drug with the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing af­ter be­ing stopped by po­lice.

(BOX)

$6B in Reg­i­ment fund­ing

Be­tween 2014 and 2023, ac­cord­ing to Fi­nance Min­istry doc­u­ments, the Reg­i­ment re­ceived more than $6.1 bil­lion in state fund­ing—$6 bil­lion for re­cur­rent ex­pen­di­ture and $108 mil­lion in de­vel­op­ment pro­gramme fund­ing.

*2014-$565.1 Mil­lion

*2015-$537.7 Mil­lion

*2016-$669.8 Mil­lion

*2017-$748.2 Mil­lion

*2018-$582.5 Mil­lion

*2019-$583.6 Mil­lion

*2020-$602.9 Mil­lion

*2021-$596.2 Mil­lion

*2022-$597.4 Mil­lion

*2023-$705.5 Mil­lion

“In West­ern mil­i­tary the­o­ry, you don’t quan­ti­fy the mil­i­tary as a re­turn on in­vest­ment un­like a po­lice ser­vice be­cause re­mem­ber a mil­i­tary struc­ture must al­ways be ready for any even­tu­al­i­ty. So you can­not af­ford to have them in a state of un­readi­ness be­cause you don’t know when you will need them.

“There is al­ways a vol­ume of arms and am­mu­ni­tion and ma­te­r­i­al that they are not us­ing right away, but you have to keep your­self in a state of readi­ness, so that is where the in­ven­to­ry con­trol prob­lem aris­es, es­pe­cial­ly when you have transna­tion­al crime ac­tive in your coun­try,” Figueira said.

Be­fore a March 2023 JSC on Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, TTDF Di­rec­tor of Op­er­a­tions Lieu­tenant Colonel Singh said the TTPS asked for more as­sis­tance from the TTDF.

“With the in­creas­ing ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty and abil­i­ty for gangs to ac­quire il­le­gal firearms with greater so­phis­ti­ca­tion and greater quan­ti­ties of am­mu­ni­tion, cou­pled with gangs mov­ing in­to new ar­eas and the ar­rival of new gangs, the TTPS has re­quest­ed more as­sis­tance from the TTDF ... In 2017, the TTDF com­mit­ted to send­ing the TTPS more per­son­nel to help with pa­trols: foot pa­trols, mo­bile pa­trols and sta­t­ic pa­trols through­out all po­lice di­vi­sions.”

He said in 2021 the TTDF took part in 11,333 crime pa­trols, dip­ping to 8,824 in 2022. He at­trib­uted the drop to COVID lock­downs.