Circled area pinpoints where the radar covers.

AN Israeli sophisticated radar system perched majestically atop the Twin Towers, Port of Spain has been keeping the Coast Guard busy in the North/Western peninsula checking out vessels coming under the dark into Trinidad and Tobago waters.

During the United National Congress (UNC) Administration, a radar was erected at the top of the Twin Towers, but that was replaced with a more effective and modern system from Israeli to monitor the seas between Maracas Bay and South Trinidad, police sources say.

The radar is being manned by officers from the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit (OCNU), who are carrying out joint exercises with the Coast Guard to search vessels coming into Trinidad and Tobago waters through the Bocas and the Gulf of Paria.

A powerful Israeli-made wireless communication system is also situated on the top of the building to relay messages to Coast Guard patrol vessels both from Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

OCNU can also make contacts with the British Royal Navy and the US Coast Guard, who are also patrolling Caribbean waters in the fight against illicit drugs.

During recent weeks, the Coast Guard had intercepted several boats coming from Caricom countries, fishing vessels and Venezuelan pirogues which were detected on the radar screen and taken under tight security to Staubles Bay, Chaguaramas where they were rummaged for illegal drugs, weapons and contraband goods.

A few days ago, a Venezuelan pirogue was stopped by the Coast Guard off the Five Islands, off Chaguaramas with four Trini-dadians aboard.

The Trinis told Coast Guard officers they were coming from Toco to Carenage.

However, they were allowed to go free but the Venezuelan captain was detained because he was not possession of a passport.

He was handed over to Immigration officers who are awaiting an interpreter from the Venezuelan Embassy in Port of Spain to interrogate him.

Sources say that radar can scan the seas from Maracas Bay, Scotland Bay, Teteron, Staubles Bay, the Five Islands, Orange Valley, Carli Bay and as far as San Fernando.

While the radar and other radar systems are being used in the Government’s fight against drug trafficking and to combat the gun trade, the Coast Guard is also on the look out for the smuggling of illegal immigrants from Venezuela to Trinidad, including prostitutes.

Immigration authorities are trying to clamp down on the lucrative “human trafficking” trade involving Nigerians and nationals from Ghana. Two weeks ago, the Coast Guard came upon a suspicious vessel off the Five Islands, Chaguaramas with a lone Venezuelan aboard.

He told Coast Guard officers he was hired to take two Nigerians, who were supposed to be brought by a fishing boat from Carenage, to be taken to Venezuela.

He revealed that he had made a similar trip a few days before with two other Nigerians, who were fleeing Trinidad because they had been here illegally.