In the aftermath of the July 24 prison break at the Port-of-Spain Prison authorities are probing the circumstances under which a cache of guns, ammo and grenades has landed up in the Beetham landfill in Port-of-Spain, metres from the capital city and the Beetham Gardens.
T&T Guardian was told by prison sources a clean-up exercise was done, allegedly by prisons officers who were privy to the plan weeks before and were able to bag up the remaining guns, ammunition and grenades and have one of the prisoners dump it in a dumpster. That dumpster, which is located to the back of the prison, was taken to the landfill sometime during the weekend.
Prison officers fear that should a fire be ignited in the landfill, the explosives can blow up, causing serious injury or even death to landfill workers and other sanitation workers coming in to dump waste.
The source said the weapons were allegedly brought into the prison on three occasions: During an Eid function, in ice cream which was brought for the birthday celebrations of one of the three escapees, Hassan “Monster” Atwell, and in a one-liner juice carton. Atwell's birthday was celebrated on July 20, four days before the prison break.
On the actual day of the prison break, T&T Guardian was told a senior prisons officer, who is no longer assigned to the Port-of-Spain prison but still frequents there, allegedly instructed that inmates be only searched by officers of the Special Search Team, a unit which is part of Operations. “We found it strange the day these instructions were given prisons officers had no choice but to obey,” the prison source said.
It is also alleged that another senior prisons officer, subsequent to the incident, was given another acting senior position. It is alleged that this same officer, one week before the incident, got into a confrontation with the three escapees — Atwell, Allan “Scanny” Martin and Christopher Selby. No official report was made against them.
Since the incident, only three officers have been suspended despite the fact that initially it was reported that seven prisons officers, including an Assistant Superintendent of Prisons, were allegedly in the line-up for suspension. These officers were identified during a fact-finding exercise headed by Investigating Officer DCP Glen Hackett.
On August 3, 2015 two suspension letters were handed out, one to an acting Superintendent of Prisons and another officer. A third officer was subsequently suspended the next day. The suspension letters were headed: Suspension from Duty — Allegation of Misconduct.
It stated that the officers failed to take the necessary actions promptly which contributed to the escape of Atwell, Martin and Selby; secondly, injury to PO I Leon Rouse; and thirdly, death of police constable Sherman Maynard. Another prison source explained it was believed prisons officers on duty that day were privy to information on the prison break and allegedly did nothing.
“But what was not told was that the information allegedly came within five minutes of the time the prison break actually occurred, meaning that five minutes may not have been sufficient time for seniors on duty to attempt to prevent anything from going down,” the prison source said.
On July 24, 2015 at about 12.30 pm Atwell, Selby and Martin pointed guns at prisons officers on duty inside the prison. Martin got the keys to the front gate, which he opened for them to run out onto Frederick Street. PC Sherman Maynard was shot as the escapees targeted the vehicle in which he was sitting. He subsequently died. Martin was shot dead by police on the Port-of-Spain General Hospital's compound.
Atwell and Selby escaped but Atwell was gunned down on Saturday night in East Dry River, Port-of-Spain. On July 26, Selby surrendered.
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General secretary of the Prisons Officers Association Gerald Gordon questioned why the investigations have seemingly gone silent or wondered if it was going to be a cover-up. He added that the association was hell-bent on having the issue dealt with by the relevant authorities.
"The implementation of grabbers on the ground and the CCTV installation is all well and good but the prison break issue itself still lingers and there is need to get to the bottom of this but we are not hearing anything again on the issue. We are wondering why this entire issue has gone silent," Gordon said.
Contacted yesterday for comment, Minister of National Security Carl Alfonso said investigations were ongoing into the circumstances that led up to the prison break. However, he did not want to say anything that would cause panic among the citizens of the country, especially as the general election was drawing close.
"There are too many things coming to us that can cause panic if they are disclosed, including, death threats," Alfonso said. He, however, did not deny or confirm the information that T&T Guardian had received.