PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – The Trinidad and Tobago Government says the authorities are still searching for “packages of interest identified by international law enforcement to contain illegal weapons” that disappeared from a transit shed at the Customs here.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert made the announcement as he responded to opposition questions in the Senate on Tuesday as to what measures were being taken by the Customs and Excise Division to allow citizens to clear their goods in time for Christmas.

He told legislators that while the Customs had extended its working hours and had deployed additional staff, there was limited space for the examination of goods at private transit sheds at Customs.

“We are talking about 150,000 packages expected during this month, perhaps more in November [when] there were 167,000 packages, and we have particular problems with transit sheds.

“One transit shed was closed down because its security systems were totally non-functional and unknown persons broke in, tampered with packages and removed items, which we suspect are illegal items such as guns and ammunition.”

Imbert said that at one transit shed, he was informed that the authorities were not even aware that persons had broken in and stolen things from their packages because their security systems were not working.