Randolph Burroughs Speaks: Predicting T&T Crime Chaos



This is the voice of Randolph Burroughs, the legendary Police Commissioner (1978-1984) as recorded in an unpublished biography which not only chronicles, in detail, how he was framed to be removed from office but gives an unprecedented insight into Trinidad and Tobago’s crime history. On December 5th 2005, in a special edition of the T&T Mirror, with permission from his son Edison Burroughs, we published excerpts which I will reproduce here in a four-part series. It is timely because it gives a perspective on crime in Trinidad and Tobago, explains how drug trafficking and money laundering and the foreign currency racket took root and most importantly details how the politicians -who ignored his calls for help to deal with the growing drug trade- eventually engineered his removal from office.
The Chief, as he was fondly referred to, often told anyone who visited his home at Pinewood Gardens, Petit Valley that the Office of Commissioner of Police would never be the same again.

This is being republished against the backdrop of Gary Griffith’s appointment as top cop and his threats to become what can only be the 21st-century version of the late Randolph Burroughs TC.
At the age of 66 years, Burroughs died in October 1996, after the entire biography, (which I worked on with the late Mirror Editor Keith Shepherd) was completed


Part One: Narcotics Squad in Cocaine Trade

 National Security Minister John Donaldson knew about it

Around the start of 1984, I suddenly realized that my concern and fight against the growing narcotics trade had made me something of a nemesis for many people who appeared to be decent and respectable.
 Only later did I become aware that those involved in it would have done anything to get me out of the way..including members of the Narcotics Squad. At the time that it was being played out around me, however, I just could not put my finger on the web of deceit that was being spun.
We continued to arrest violators at Piarco International Airport mostly trying to leave the country with marijuana and cocaine concealed on their person or in their luggage.
But there was little evidence of people using the airport to bring in drugs.
This gave rise to the suspicion that Trinidad and Tobago was a dealer’s haven as well as a transhipment point for cocaine.
It meant that our miles and miles of unprotected coast were being used to the fullest advantage by the drug barons.
By this time I had worked out that US Currency was the mainstay of the thriving drug trafficking business
This was easy to deduce, as none of the countries we dealt with in the cocaine trade- Colombia and Venezuela- were aligned with our domestic currency.
And, this was compounded when hand in hand with the drugs trade, more sophisticated weapons started appearing and there was a steep rise in drug-related crime.
Even though we mounted an operation we codenamed FAN -Firearms, Ammunition and Narcotics- we were unable to make significant inroads into the spate of violent, armed robberies that suddenly became the order of the day, or arrest some of the big importers that our informers fingered. 
After all, we had to catch them in the act— and in possession of drugs.
Armed robberies are a natural offshoot of the firearms and narcotics trade.
So while we wanted to get at the financiers and the originators, we also had to keep some control over their careless, wanton foot soldiers who were not averse to blazing paths of death and destruction.
Meanwhile, we kept getting leads and information that showed how widespread the drug tentacles had reached and that kept us on our toes as the scourge kept turning up in different parts of the country.
For example, we discovered that six nationals of Trinidad and Tobago, two Cubans and two Venezuelans, operating out of an Indian village on the banks of the Orinoco River had established a thriving arms and ammunition trade in the Erin-Chatham-Icacos areas of South-West Trinidad.
Working together with Inspector Pedro Meza of the Tucupita Police, the local police were able to arrest some members of that ring.
Meza and I later collaborated and discovered that six Trinidadians had set up a similar camp on our Blue River at the El Socorro Road extension (across the highway).
In addition to arms and ammunition, they also trafficked in drugs.
Furthermore, in South Trinidad, we found that a Colombian connection had been brought in.
A Savonetta woman was the “Kingpin” in this gang.
Her son-in-law, a Colombian national who worked as an engineer at the Ministry of Works in Trinidad, looked over things on behalf of his home cartel which had three boats docking at Claxton Bay with cocaine merchandise every 15 days.
One night we got lucky and arrested two crew members of one of the boats.
They were held at a San Fernando nightclub with over TT$300,000 worth of cocaine in their possession…probably waiting for a transaction to take place.
I also learnt that a Customs Officer operating out of its Preventative Branch and the proprietor of a haberdashery store on Henry Street were also involved in a similar fishy business.
The bossman held several banking accounts outside the country, supplied nationals of Venezuela with foreign exchange and issued cheques that were to be cashed overseas.
I passed all this and other information to the then Minister of National Security, John Donaldson, in an official memo.


John Donaldson (left) and Burroughs.


I further noted that the Godfather of the Henry Street operation was a wealthy Colombian living in that country, owned hotels in both his country and Miami and was in the process of establishing a business connection with a Woodbrook businesswoman (who was alive at the time of writing). The long and short of it is that I was not twiddling my thumbs on the ever-worsening drug situation, as the story still goes.
I even called for a meeting with Victor Cockburn, the Comptroller of Customs, Commander Jack Williams of the Coast Guard and Signoret of the Civil Aviation Department.
We were under an external threat by land, sea and air, as I recommended that an amalgamation of the Police, Customs and Immigration, Coast Guard, Regiment and Civil Aviation people and the air wing of the National Security Ministry should embark on a joint plan of action.
At the time it seemed strange to me that some ten years after I warned the People’s National Movement (PNM) administration that local drug lords were setting up shop these people had flourished so much.
 Some people accuse me of all sorts of drug-related crimes but the record of those years will show that I was always involved in fighting the National Union of Freedom Fighters (NUFF) and other terrorist gangs, solving the Malik murders and generally pinch hitting wherever and whenever a big crisis arose.
While I was pressing on with the job, however, there had been no political will to wage a concerted battle against the treacherous trade in cocaine, especially.
In addition to doing my work I spoke to thousands of school children and other young people on the danger of drugs. I only now realize how threatening I must have sounded to some big people in society when I spoke at such gatherings
I was always like a voice in the wilderness even when I was telling people that drugs were exchanged by criminals with easy access to huge sums of money supporting an underworld economy that was bigger than the gross national product of many developing nations.
I also noted the distinct possibility that persons of high social standing could be corrupted by drug money and that public officials could also be taken in by bribery.
I could clearly see that it was a bigger problem than I could handle.
It was out of my hands.
And I also realized that the entire criminal justice system that existed in the country needed to be upgraded dramatically!
Part Two: Foreign Currency Racket ...how money laundering took root.

Popular posts from this blog

Panorama Re engineered:It Is Now A Hustler's Paradise.

Let the truth be told: How Shorty deceived the status quo to create Sokah.