PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, (CMC)– Criminal gangs in Trinidad are moving to Tobago and recruiting young people, some as young as 12-years, to engage in criminal activities, a senior police officer said on Friday.

Acting senior Superintendent Earl Eli, speaking on a radio programme, said Tobago has been impacted by three of the main gangs from Trinidad and “most of that impact is associated with the marijuana trade.

“They (the gangs) being the main suppliers and what we have been noticing, not just in Tobago, but in Trinidad, the direction they are going focuses on young impressionable minds.

“In Tobago, I could give you this with assurance, there are persons as young as 12 years, I am talking about primary school children, totting guns, primary school children selling marijuana, primary school children utilising the symbols and signals of the gangs…and clearly indicating their association with these gangs”.

Superintendent Eli, who is one of the senior officers on the sister isle, told radio listeners “it is a trend and it is simply because those minds are impressionable.

“If you take a firearm and put it in the hands of a child of that age, you can get him to do almost anything and over the next few days we may have some revelations for you.

“I can’t comment on that right now, but you will see in the next couple days,” he said, telling listeners “sometimes you never know what your child is doing”.

But he said while he is not putting the blame “totally” on the parents, “but when your child goes and interact with persons with that intention and they are easily misled…(and) it is an easy attraction.

‘If you play with fire you will get burn and fire doesn’t respect any age. It will burn your hands despite your age and we are seeing the effect of that in Tobago,” he said, recalling that last Saturday, a 15-year-old was murdered.

“I am saying that this 15-year-old wasn’t an angel by no means. He has been involved in activities and that’s the life style that he chose.”

The senior police officer said “whether he was conscious of it or not, but he entered into that lifestyle and aid the price with his life.

“This prove the evidence of the age group involved in criminal activity,” he said, noting that “the majority of the arrests we have made in the last couple of weeks are Trinidadians”.

He said on Thursday night, two Trinidadians were arrested, including one who is wanted for murder and the other “for serious criminal crimes” in Trinidad.

“What we have seen is that they are moving to Tobago, because somehow in the minds, and wrongfully they believe Tobago is a safe haven and …we are going to find them and we are going to arrest them and treat them how they deserve to be treated”.

He said the authorities there are also using the existing state of emergency (SoE) to carry out exercises aimed at bringing back “some form of normality where the residents of Tobago can feel safe and comfortable.

“As a matter of fact we are already greeting that feedback from them,” the senior police officer added.

On Thursday, another senior police officer, ACP Oswain Subero told a Tobago stakeholders security meeting that the SoE operations have been bearing fruit.

“What we have seen in Tobago, regarding our operations from the 30th, we have been able to detain persons, we have been able to charge persons and we have been able to recover the number one thing we wanted—firearms.

“We have been seeing success, some of which we can’t discuss here and we look forward to the Parliament making a decision on how the SoE will be in effect. It’s our drive in 2025 to remove as many firearms off the island as possible. Firearms and narcotics are the problems in Tobago and our plan is specific to addressing those issues. We are going after those issues.”