THE Sunday Guardian of the 22 and 29 January 2006 presented the allegations of Vernon Paul.

The allegation that is of interest to the writer is that of the trafficking of illicit guns, drugs, explosives and artillery from Venezuela.

Paul is alleging that for a specific political purpose an operative of the People’s National Movement (PNM) entered into a trafficking operation and successfully smuggled into Trinidad the means to, for the first time in the post-colonial history of Trinidad and Tobago, wage political warfare through the barrel of the gun in the tradition of post-colonial Jamaica.

The published descriptions of the alleged trafficking operation by Vernon Paul revealed a connected operative capable of successfully trafficking a potent array of weaponry which, if Paul is correct in his allegations, is still in the hands of the operative.

The potential threat that this arms cache poses to the security of the State of Trinbago demands that covert surveillance and an overt investigation be immediately launched to determine the accuracy of Paul’s allegations.

The lesson of Paul’s allegations is that if you are so well connected to smuggle a small arms, explosives and artillery cache from Venezuela, how many have you in fact imported?

The government and people must never forget that arms caches smuggled from Florida was the means utilised by the Jamaat al Muslimeen to storm the Red House and TTT House on July 27, 1990.

VERNON PAUL

YASIN ABU BAKR

BILAAL ABDULLAH

Both the US Federal Government and the NAR Government of the day failed to interdict these smuggled arms caches to the detriment of the nation of Trinbago, setting in train social forces that continue to wash over us to this day.

Given the realities of the events of July 27, 1990, all allegations involving the smuggling of arms caches into Trinbago demand ongoing and thorough covert and overt investigations to ensure the security of the citizenry of Trinbago.

A State serious on protecting the citizenry and its institutions would assault the integrity after it has thoroughly investigated the accuracy of the allegations of any messenger, not before.

Furthermore, such allegations as those of Paul have to be investigated by a covert civilian intelligence agency, as overt uniformed police agencies are unable to enter and move freely in the criminal underworld, such is the value of assets as Paul.

In the post-colonial history of Trinbago, the US Federal Government secured indictments for gun smuggling against the following citizens of Trinbago resident in Trinbago:

The case 02-CR-60105-ALL of USA vs Clive Lancelot Small aka Olive Small aka Olive Enyahooma-El in the Southern District of Florida (Ft. Lauderdale) in which Small was found guilty on three counts as follows: Count 1: Conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Small was sentenced to 60 months imprisonment.

Count 2: Did knowingly possess machine guns, MAC-10 9mm machine guns. Small was sentenced to 120 months imprisonment.

Count 3: Knowingly received and possessed firearms.

Small was sentenced to 31 months imprisonment.

All sentences are to run concurrently.

The case 90-CR-6161-ALL of USA vs Louis Haneef, et al in the Southern District of Florida, indictments for illicit activities was very similar to those of Small; he was found guilty and is now serving time for it in a Florida pen.

Indictments were also secured against the following persons: Yasin Abu Bakr, Bilaal Abdullah and Riad Ali.

Extradition requests to the TT Government were never issued by the US Federal Government for the extradition of Abu Bakr, Abdullah and Ali.

The indictments alleged that Abu Bakr, Abdullah and Ali were involved in the illegal purchase, transportation and storage of arms and ammunition in the jurisdiction of the US District Court of the Southern District of Florida and the illegal shipment of said arms and ammunition to Trinidad.

It is expected that these indictments against Abu Bakr, Abdullah and Ali are now expired as a result of the US federal statute of limitations.

Ali migrated from Trinbago shortly after his release from prison in the post 1990 period.

Abdullah resigned from the Muslimeen in 1993 and he is now emir of the Islamic Resource Centre and a known PNM activist.