History of criminals in URP
Big contracts for gangsters
Darryl Heeralal dheeralal@trinidadexpress.com
Monday, February 25th 2008
FRIENDLY HANDSHAKE: Prime Minister Patrick Manning greets gang leader Sheldon "Crock" Scott with a friendly handshake during a pre-election walkabout in Laventille last year. -Photo: CURTIS CHASE
CONCERNED about criminal involvement in the Unemployment Relief Programme and the effect it is having on gang violence, a High Court judge criticised Government's inaction on Friday.
In freeing two men charged with one of the most brazen gang-related murders, Justice Anthony Carmona described as "delusional" and "irresponsible" statements an official had made that there were no criminal elements in the URP.
Carmona did not name the official.
However, former Local Government Rennie Dumas, when questioned on the issue in the run-up to last year's general election, went on record to say that there were no criminal elements in the URP.
Police statistics have shown that over 100 of the victims of gangland killings since 2002 were either URP supervisors, foremen, contractors or workmen.
Homicide detectives and officers from several intelligence units formed to monitor gangs have also said dozens more murders committed are related to fall-out from State-run special works projects.
Government involvement in hiring and awarding of contracts to known criminals has also been well documented over the last ten years.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning himself has had a history of dealing with people identified by police as criminals and gang leaders associated with the URP and other State-run projects.
Police, including former commissioner Hilton Guy, have also said that monies from the URP and other projects were being used to fund gang wars, murders and other "ghetto" crimes.
Gangland violence has fuelled this country's high murder rate and spun off into other crimes, such as drug trafficking, gun smuggling and kidnapping for ransom, police say.
Under Manning's PNM Government, several key crime figures identified by the police, including Mark Guerra, Kerwin "Fresh" Phillip, Sheldon "Crock" Scott, Glenroy "Abdul Malick" Charles and Salim "Small Salim" Rasheed, among others, have amassed millions through the URP and what was then the NHA refurbishing projects.
In 2002, Manning had secretly met with several known gang leaders and after one such meeting, backed down on a move to appoint ex-policemen to administer the URP, put there in the first place to clamp down on corruption.
Manning has never denied meeting with gang leaders.
Recently the Prime Minister noted in an interview that nearly all of the men he had met with have been murdered and police say all of those killings have been gang-related.
Manning's PNM, however, has not been the only party involved in URP-related corruption.
Under the UNC in 1999, councillor Hansraj Sumairsingh, chairman of the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation, was murdered and the killing evidence showed it was linked to URP corruption.
Sumairsingh was killed overfall-out from the construction of basketball court and pavilion at Poole Valley, Rio Claro.
Former local government minister Dhanraj Singh was charged with the murder, but later freed in the High Court. Singh is also facing 26 fraud charges related to kick backs from URP and other State-run projects.
Sumairsingh is not the only councillor to have been murdered because of URP-related corruption.
In late 2006, Bert Allette, a PNM city councillor, was murdered in Belmont after raising objections about ghost gangs in a URP project, Homicide detectives say.
Incidentally, the man who was questioned about the murder and is still the number one suspect was recently awarded a $2 million Government project, sources from the police's gang intelligence unit say.
Recently, Selwyn "Robocop" Alexis, during a recent kidnapping trial, said in open court that he built houses for the then National Housing Authority under the UNC. No one from the Opposition ever denied the charge.
Based on police intelligence and records, the escalation in gangland violence and murders started in late 2001, early 2002.
Deputy Police Commissioner Gilbert Reyes has said that gang murders are mainly responsible for the country's high homicide rate.
Police records show that the increase in murders coincided with the appointment of Mark Guerra as national adviser to the URP. The post, which had never existed before then, was created for Guerra.
In September of 2002, one Government minister moved to stem the corruption in the URP by appointing members of the Flying Squad as programme supervisors.
But Manning reversed the decision after he met with several gang leaders, including Guerra and Phillip, at the Ambassador Hotel, Long Circular Road, St James.
Weeks later, when the violence exploded, Manning secretly met with gang leaders again at the same hotel and at the Rose Foundation in St James, to broker a peace deal.
Guy had said, based on police information then, that the URP and the NHA refurbishing projects were contributing to the gang violence and that most of the people involved in the murders were part of a Muslim organisation.
Late in 2002, Sean "Bill" Francis went public and said that ghost gangs in the URP and NHA projects were the main reasons behind gang violence in Laventille and Morvant.
Francis said while he was a programme coordinator in 1998/99, he got rid of over 7,000 "ghosts" in the Port of Spain region, an area controlled by Guerra.
Former PNM senator
Muhammad Shabaaz was at the side of Francis when he met Manning at the Rose Foundation, St James.
Shabaaz was soon after fired as the coordinator of the $250 million NHA refurbishing project, and in his place Cabinet appointed former murder accused David "Buffy" Millard, who held the post until he fled to Guyana.
In one public fiasco several "ghosts" were paid millions of State dollars. Names such as "Jennifer Lopez", "Serena Williams" and "Arnold Schwarzenegger" were paid for painting houses in east Port of Spain.
The Opposition had asked that the audited report of the project be laid in Parliament, but it was never done.
In the run-up to the elections of 2002, Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr revealed that Government had started the paper work to hand over five acres of State lands adjoining the Mucurapo headquarters of the organisation to them. Manning pulled back under public pressure.
The murders continued in 2003 and it was around this time that Phillip and Charles started amassing their wealth after Guerra was murdered, police say.
Phillip was leader of the infamous G-Unit gang and Charles was the head of all the major criminals in west Port of Spain. At the time of his murder, Charles was described as a URP contractor worth $14 million.
Months before he was killed, Phillip was given a million-dollar Government contract to build a health centre at Oxford Street, Port of Spain. Phillip admitted to getting the contract during an interview with CNMG.
In 2004, Kirk Walker, a former coup maker, said he was illegally paid a URP cheque to keep him quiet after a gangster pulled a gun on him - this despite Walker's not having worked with the programme.
Walker was given the Government cheque for $710.30, dated December 20, 2004. The cheque, number U 00648168, was issued for work done in the Arima Region, Bertie Road Sanitation Project for the fortnight November 22 to December 3.
Then URP acting manager Uric Williams said he was aware of similar situations in that region, where people were being paid for work not performed.
During Abu Bakr's conspiracy to murder trial, State witness Brent Danglade said in open court that he was paid for not doing any work in the programme.
Under Singh, a unit was set up to investigate ghost gangs in the URP and has compiled several reports confirming the existence of it.
In 2004, the Ministry of Local Government started a programme to award URP contracts to gangsters if they gave up their guns, a Sunday Express expose reported.
Dumas, however, said he was not aware of such a programme.
Last year, detectives linked a wave of murders in Sea Lots, Port of Spain, to a URP contract awarded to a known criminal in the Production Avenue area.
Rasheed, who was given a URP contract to build drains at Seventh Avenue, Malick, was murdered and police said the death was related to fall-out from the contract.
Scott, whose murder sparked a wave of violence in Picton three weeks ago, was a contractor at the Beverly Hills apartments site.
Several other gang leaders and known criminals identified by the Inter Agency Task Force are also employed with the URP as either contractors, supervisors, foremen or normal workers, despite their involvement in murders, drug trafficking and kidnappings.
Police say as long as criminals benefit from State-run projects like the URP, gang violence will never stop, as corrupt monies from the special projects will continue to fund the killings and gangland violence.
What Justice Carmona said on Friday:
"Some person in authority had stated that there were no criminals in the URP. I dare say, in fact, that particular statement by the person in authority was highly delusional and totally irresponsible, because not only I, but my other brothers have made the observation time and time again of a lot of criminal activity taking place in the bowel of the URP and that is the stark reality.
"Based on matters coming before the courts in the last 18 months, I can tell you that in the bowels of the URP there is rank criminality and the authorities need to address this, you understand."
What Dumas said in an interview in 2005:
"I am saying that you will not find an individual or a group of individuals turning up and getting their cheques from us without working for it. I feel you will have serious difficulty in finding that.
"People might be employed with URP just as they could be employed anywhere else, but their major activity is outside URP. They are not using URP funds to fund kidnapping or fund drug trafficking. If you use their URP membership or the occasion of work in the URP to identify them, then you are stigmatising the URP. If it's a drug lord it's a drug lord, if it's a drug salesman, it's a drug salesman, if it's a kidnapper it's a kidnapper."
The progression of murders between 2001 and 2007;
2001 151
2002 171
2003 229
2004 260
2005 386
2006 371
2007 388
