A contracted employee working at the Prime Minister’s St Ann’s residence was stopped by Special Branch officers on Thursday when “traces” of marijuana were found in his vehicle, a Government security spokesman confirmed yesterday.
Word broke on this early yesterday, but both Ministers Stuart Young (Office of the Prime Minister) and Edmund Dillon (National Security) referred queries to the police and acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams.
The Police Communications Department later confirmed the incident, saying the man was someone who had gone to do work on the PM’s residence.
Traces of marijuana were found in his vehicle, a station wagon, around 9.15 am by Special Branch officers attached to the residence, as they did the normal check of vehicles and people entering the compound, a release from the police service said yesterday. An apparatus popularly called a “grinder” was also found with the ganja. The man was not allowed to enter the compound as a result of the find and officers were said to be preparing to lay charges against the man.
The T&T Guardian learned the man was employed by a contractor who has been putting up barbed wire on the fencing at the official residence/Diplomatic Centre compound.
Meanwhile, yesterday in Parliament, Dillon addressed reporters on the issue of the prime minister’s security detail who, officials said, had been told their services were no longer needed when they turned up for duty yesterday with the PM. However, they were still on the Parliament compound yesterday awaiting direction. (See page A6)
Officials said the security detail was told “your services are no longer needed” when they went to pick up the PM. The T&T Guardian learned there had been issues with very extended periods of work.
The Prime Minister was later seen in Parliament with a Special Forces officer and not the usual Special Branch officer.
He reportedly went to the Parliament with acting Attorney General Stuart Young’s detail of police and military officers. The AG has that type of security. Young is acting for AG Faris Al-Rawi, who is overseas at a Caribbean Financial Action Task Force conference.
Members of the PM’s (former) security detail also later went to the Parliament, where they were seen, and were on the compound awaiting instructions from the acting Police Commissioner, under whose ambit they fall. —GA