IS CRIME A BUSINESS

[00:00:01] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability. The all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5. [00:00:08] Speaker B: And we want to welcome you back to the Morning Rumble here, Davey and your company. And now we turn my attention to Mr. Stephen Cady's prominent businessman in Trinidad and Tobago as we discuss crime this morning. Good morning, sir. [00:00:21] Speaker A: Good morning, Devi. Good morning to all your listeners at Freedom106. [00:00:26] Speaker B: Want to thank you for waking up this early. I don't know if you usually do. [00:00:32] Speaker A: I should have been on morning radio. You know, I get up very early in the morning so it's not a problem for me. [00:00:37] Speaker B: When I accepted to come in this morning, you know, sometimes, yes, you know, Satish is unable to make it. So I will sit in for Satish, I usually ask. And then I'm vexed with myself at 3:30 when I realized, oh my gosh, I didn't get up just now, I didn't get enough sleep and then I started vexed. Why did I say yes, but it's always good to be here. It's always good to be here to do more morning radio, you know, but it's, it's something that it, you know, you go to sleep sometimes and you just want to relax and you say, I don't have to get up that early. The kids will go to school for 8:30. I could still think. But then I have to be here at five in the morning to prepare for the morning show. So I say, welcome to the program, sir. We discussing crime this morning and there's a very, very prominent question that no doubt would have tipped the lips of many Trin Begonians and persons across the diaspora, asking the question, is crime really a business in Trinidad and Tobago? Why is it that our authorities can't seem to get this, to get a grapple on this thing or get it under control? I look at the judiciary from time to time and I say to myself, why do we lag and drag with cases? If it is that we have enough evidence to arrest someone and bring them to the police station so we have enough evidence or cause as a law enforcement officer to put you under arrest, you're under arrest. And when you look at that, it isn't much, you know, it isn't much to arrest you. If they have a problem, if they have cause to, and then they, they go through further investigations and then they find cause to charge you, or even worse yet, they refer the matter to the dpp and the DPP hands down instructions or advice. I don't know if the DPP can instruct the police or if the deep. Because one minute you hear the DPP instructs, the police instructs or advise charges be laid and then the person is charged. You have enough evidence to do that. But we seldom find the evidence to convict. And then we take years in preparation for a case and most times it's acquitted. So I asked you this morning, Mr. Katie's your thoughts. Is crime really a business? [00:02:37] Speaker A: Well, to say it is not a business, I think you would be a stranger to the truth. I mean it is obvious that what has happened in Trinidad over the last 20 years is just something that is mind boggling. That it could actually be that Trinidad and Tobago could actually be like that. I was in Tobago recently and to think that that Little island has 26 murders. Tobago right now per capita is probably the highest territory in the region. In the whole Caribbean region, okay? With the highest murder rate per capita. And you don't read. I mean I am fed up following crime in the newspapers and what have you because I just think it is sick what has happened to the country and to think that it could continue like that and there's nothing happening. I mean recently. I mean I'm not going to dive into the, the politics, but politics is part of our lives and that is what runs the country. When you have the minister of national security recently, that was what during his budget presentation saying that he, the minister actually had a actual conversation with a known criminal who came to him with some information and that's the end of it. And nobody says, well if you knew that this guy is a known criminal, being able to contact the Minister of National Security and have a conversation with him, it says that there is something happening there. There's collusion, it has to be. You cannot have a country the size of Trinidad whereby the entire coast guard ocean going vessels, all eight of them are all down at the same time. This country has a radar system, which is I was told, because I met, when I was in government, I met the people who installed it. But Trinidad has nearly 90% cover with this, with this radar. And you can't find anybody coming across the channel between Venezuela and here. You can't find people coming from the northern islands, either Grenada or Saint Vincent that are not coming here to fish or to do whatever, but they're coming here for illegal reasons, okay? And nothing is done, absolutely nothing. Tobago has no patrol vessels. Trinidad itself has no patrol vessels. I mean, how can any government allow the security apparatus to completely disintegrate and not fix it? And that just says that the government, this particular government, is without a doubt in cahoots with criminal gangs. It has to be. [00:05:37] Speaker B: You made a very, very startling point when you. Not you, but I mean the Minister of National Security made a proclamation on it when he was, when he was contacted. Now if this is a known gangster, a known criminal, one will beg to ask the minister, why isn't this person under thorough investigation or watchful eye of the police? Why are we not able to have some kind of tag on this person to know their whereabouts and catch them? Because that is the only way we can convict you. We had to catch you red handed. Or you come up and you confess, you say, well, yes, I did it, we can't do it otherwise. So for you to say that this person is known as a criminal, committed criminal acts in the past, and having. [00:06:20] Speaker A: A private conversation with the Minister of National Security, you know, it's. I don't know. I mean, when you look at every single area of every single area where there is some control, for instance, the container X ray machines, the coast guard is down, all the machines are down. You wait until the whole system collapses, then you decide, oh well, maybe we should be doing something about this. And that is why you have AK47s and illegal drugs coming in barrels in the barrel shop on the port. You know, you cannot sit there and tell the population, well, we are trying extremely hard. So hard that we actually put a second Minister of National Security. [00:07:14] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:07:16] Speaker A: So all you're doing is appointing people, but yet still there is no mechanism. When last did you ever read. Well, let me back up a little bit. The previous one of the previous attorneys general in this administration, Mr. Alwari, made the statement. There was 1241 gang members. He didn't say approximately 1000, he didn't say approximately 1500 or 500. You know, he called out the figure down to 41. Okay, if the Attorney General has that sort of information, why is it that this thing is impossible to deal with? And there's only one answer to that. Somebody else is pulling strings whereby the criminal gangs are left to do what they want to do. It's as simple as that. [00:08:13] Speaker B: You know what I look at And I wanted to make a point as you talk about these scanners and the port for people. I don't know if you missed. Well, as a businessman, you probably would have, would have brought in stuff for your business, I'm not sure. But think about the average citizen that somebody is sending a barrel. Have you ever experienced somebody sending, you know, your aunt, somebody sent a barrel for you. And you have to go down to the port to collect this through the broker or whatever it is, the way they treat you, you, the citizen. When you get there, if you do not abide by their rules, you could find yourself being there for the entire day and having to come back another day and another day if you do follow. But when your barrel or drum or whatever it is is brought to you with your items, your crate, it's cracked open and it's thoroughly. You gotta empty this thing down to the last and then repack it. So if you have to go through this rigorous treatment, this way of investigating thoroughly to see what is in the contents of that, to then pull out a piece of paper and hit you, your bill as to what you're going to pay. How else. How is it possible that we are still with the scanning system down and we have the human manpower to go through these items? It's still slipping. Who is getting paid? Who is getting paid to turn a blind eye? [00:09:32] Speaker A: Well, the reason it's slipping is because the barrels, the barrels that are known to have illegal items in it don't come onto the ramp for everybody else to see what you have in your barrel. Okay, those barrels go, they have another door those barrels will go through. When I was Minister of Transport, I was the one who commissioned the first set of X ray machines for container. X ray machines, okay, so that was done in 2015. Okay, the early part of 2015, here it is that we going into 20, 25, 10 years after, okay, and you can't get this thing right as yet. I mean, container scanners is par for the course on every single international port on this globe. That is just the same way you have cranes, the same way you have forklifts, is the same way you have container scanners. So why is it then that we cannot keep those maintained? Why is it that those cannot be fully operational 100% of the time where there's redundancy? So in other words, if you need five scanners to keep the port going, you have eight scanners because you have three as a backup. You know, the cost of a scanner as against the cost of this country, the crime is creating it is phenomenal. You eliminate crime in this country and all of a sudden you see everything just being uplifted. The whole economy, the whole being of the population. But no, you find that very, very hard to do. I don't know. I mean, unless somebody can tell me that I'm talking real foolishness, I have no idea what I'm talking about. Then all I can say is there is collusion. And that collusion is not at corporal level and is not at first year customs officer level or first year immigration officer level. That is throughout the system from the highest office in this country is aware of what the problem is and they do nothing. You have a whole. Whatever they call it, national security. The name slips me where the Prime Minister sits. [00:11:45] Speaker B: Council. National Security Council. The National Security Council. [00:11:49] Speaker A: National Security Council. What is discussed at our National Security Council? Anybody could tell me there's serious discussions going on as to when we come here next week or the next two weeks when we sit X and Y is going to be completed, done, mobilized, whatever. [00:12:07] Speaker B: And is that going to happen? And who is the council meeting? Yeah. And who has been held accountable? When you, when you sit at the meeting, are you calling on the regular, on the regulars to find out how far they would have reached with whatever proposal when the week before and some kind of accountability. And then the nation knows. I understand. Matters of national security can be told to everyone. We can't always be in the new of certain things. We can't. But we, we could see the results of it. We could see something, Something has been done because clearly, look, this is happening. So we may not be aware of what was done, but something was done. And what we are seeing, even though we are not privy to matters of national security, we. The evidence is clear that nothing is being done. Let's take. Would you be permitted to take a call? Would you like to take one of our calls? [00:12:52] Speaker A: I will talk to. Yeah, sure. [00:12:54] Speaker B: All right. Hello. Good morning. Welcome. [00:12:56] Speaker C: Good morning, David. [00:12:57] Speaker B: Good morning. [00:12:58] Speaker C: And good morning, Mr. Kitties. Mr. Kitties, I'm sure that you believe in cabinet collective responsibility. Now, I would like to say that you Send back the three OPVs which you ordered by the previous government. When you got into office, you dismantled the Sautt, which was built on an FBI model. You took the airship out of the sky. The entire National Security portfolio built by the last government was dismantled by you. And you come here this morning like Pontius Pilot talk. If we had those three OPVs, then the system would have worked well because the plan was to have two underseas all of the time, and then you send one into service. You bring back one, and then you send the other one into service. And then you have two at all times, constantly under seas. Now, let me tell you this, Mr. Katie. You talk about the scanners at the port. You. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that there's corruption at the port. Show me a customs officer and I show you a rich man. So when you have Canada, all eight of them go down at the same point in time, you're going to put back scanners without putting some kind of thing in place because in fact that all of these institutions and the lands have been compromised. [00:14:22] Speaker B: Yeah, but let me ask you something, Let me ask you something. I don't mean to cut you. I know you want to, you want to come in hard on Mr. KD's this morning, but let me talk to you as you are defending the current government and you said, you say publicly now we have a decade later where all aid scanners are going down, you are making a point, where should we put back scanners without policy in place? We need these scanners while the policy is being, is being addressed. Because at the end of the day, the absence of those scanners, your government, this government of the day right now, 10 years later and we have all aid scanners done. So even if you want to say Mr. KD's did this and whatever, what about what your government, what this government is doing to ensure safety and security at our nation's port, because if you are saying they're trying to. Two scanners arrived yesterday after. Now listen, before you make your point, Eric, before you make your point, what I want to say to you. Two scanners arrived yesterday when we go into operation. [00:15:17] Speaker C: One, two. [00:15:20] Speaker B: After what? After what? After so many, after so many guns. [00:15:25] Speaker C: Whereby all of our public institutions have been compromised. We've seen it with our eyes wide open every day. And the only way to fix that is that the parliament must pass laws, stringent laws in order to regulate and fix it. And the president opposition refused to do it. So how the holy France are you going to get anything done in this country properly when as Mr. Kerry themselves observed, it is people who in high office know what is going on and they wanted to carry on. All right, thank you. [00:15:57] Speaker B: Thank you very much. [00:15:58] Speaker A: Well, I'm not, you know, I'm not going to go back as to who say them, say whatever, say. Okay, the issue with the famous OPVs, and that is going to be with us for the next 50 years talking about the OPVs. I will tell you what happened to the OPVs. Please do. PVS. The order for the OPVs went to a shipyard where those were the last vessels being built by that shipyard. And the shipyard was closing its doors. Okay, that's item number one. So the selection of the shipyard, there were issues with that. Okay, you going to give a shipyard a billion dollar Order knowing the shipyard closing as soon as these boats finish. There was an issue with the armaments on the vessels where they could not get it right, okay? They could not get it right. I agree. Brazil took the boats. Fine, Brazil taking boats. But those are not the only boats that Brazil has. Brazil must have about 500 vessels the size of Brazil, okay? The fact is that when you have. He's talking about, oh, they had three OPVs, two out at sea, one being under maintenance and rotating. They have eight, they don't have three. You know, this current administration has eight vessels, okay? And not one single one is out at sea. I mean, anybody you go, you jump on a party boat and go down the islands on a Sunday, you will see the entire fleet parked up outside Stovall's. The entire fleet. So don't come and tell me that after since 2015, that this current administration can't get their act together. It don't take 10 years to build a boat, you know, Come on, man. You know, this blame game, blame game when he was there, you know, I am not entertaining. [00:17:54] Speaker B: Well, I thank you for sharing some clarity on what happened with the OPVs, because a lot of our listeners, a lot of myself included, you know, it's so much of information hitting us daily. If the shipyard is closing, there is concerns about parts, repairs, maintenance on these vessels, we can't go back to deal with it. So to me, it seemed like the better thing to do. But as you mentioned, we have eight now and not one on our nation sees. We have a prime minister that blames us. We have a national security minister that blames us. Say that we, we are the ones that not given information, you know. So let's take another call very quickly. [00:18:39] Speaker A: Hello. [00:18:39] Speaker B: Good morning. [00:18:41] Speaker D: Good morning, Davion. Good morning. I just want to make a comment that if people feel that these eight vessels are down by accident, I don't think it's done by accident at all. I think it's done, as Mr. KD said, in cahoots on purpose. So that right now, right now, the citizens of this country are oblivious to the fact that drug runners are having a field day with this country. They're running their trade without any challenge whatsoever. Because this Minister of National Security who is, I don't know, preschool at best in his arguments and policy, to me, he should need be in government. He shouldn't even be running a parlor. And here you have this moron running the Ministry of National Security making a statement that a criminal or gangster came up to heat. [00:19:46] Speaker B: If I. [00:19:46] Speaker D: If I want I am an upstander, citizen of this country. If I want to contact the Minister of National Security, I don't have. I will call and they will put me on hold and they say, I'm Addison, email and all kind of thing. All this minute, this man of. Of questionable character, whole of the Minister of National Security. [00:20:06] Speaker B: All right, thank you very much, caller. It's a very good question and we want to get answers on that, but let me direct a question. Thank you very much, caller. Let me direct a question to Mr. Cadiz. In terms of the policies of the People's Partnership government, what worked as far as you know. [00:20:24] Speaker A: I think that the. Our hearts were very much in the right place to get this country back into not only a physical condition, but mentally get the country back on a steady, you know, on an even keel to. Because we're talking about boats. On an even keel, whereby things could really and truly progress. So, for instance, in the Patrick Manning administration, look how far back this is going. In the. In 2009, the Patrick Manning, Patrick Manning administration was working on the Motor Vehicle Authority Act. That's how far this thing goes back. I met it when I came in as Minister of Transport and we brought it to the Parliament in the late days of our administration. Okay. It was a massive bill with all kinds of checks and balances in it that went the way of all flesh because we didn't get the support of the Senate at that time. Now think of it. Every single illegal gun, every single ounce or kilo of cocaine or drugs or whatever it is, is moved by what not bull cart. It not being moved by all steel rally. It is a motor car. It is a vehicle that transports every single thing. I see the Ministry of Works now bringing back vehicle ID now after so long, okay. Where you can actually track vehicles, okay. So when the. When known gangsters are driving in known vehicles, you can. You can track that vehicle based on the ID system that we would. That they're supposed to be using. Now. That should have been done since, I don't know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago. That should have been done. So there are a number of things you can use. You can use the technology to create all kinds of new avenues for policing and what have you, but it requires the will of the then government to be able to do it, because it is going to require budgets, et cetera, et cetera, and training of officers and all this sort of thing, but that is not being done. There is nothing happening. [00:22:44] Speaker B: You know, when it came to. Under the people's Partnership, would you Agree or say whether or not the border issues was reliably dealt with? [00:22:58] Speaker A: Well, I think the first thing that I, that I know of is the issue of the 360 degree radar. That was one of the things that had to be serviced and brought back in. Okay? So you can monitor your borders, your marine borders, and also your air systems for people, you know, trying to sneak in with an aircraft or what have you. Whether or not that is working, I don't know. They're going to tell it as a national security issue and they can't answer that. Okay? But the simple fact that the boat that arrived in Tobago with the oil spill boat, I call it, okay, that oil spill boat came into Trinidad waters from where? From wherever. It left and came into Trinidad waters, landed up on the shores of Tobago and nobody knew about it. But, but, so, but when it came, it begs. [00:23:55] Speaker B: Go ahead, go ahead. [00:23:57] Speaker A: It begs the question, can a vessel leave Venezuela with illegal weapons, with illegal drugs and arrive in Trinidad undetected? And the simple answer to that is yes, that could be done five times a day and they will never find one. Why is that? Why are our borders open? Borders? Okay, we do not. We do not have an arms industry in Trinidad. We do not produce cocaine in Trinidad. Okay, why are borders open? Somebody has to answer that. It's as simple as that. [00:24:32] Speaker B: But the thing about it is, with whatever strategies that would have been started off under the former Prime Minister Patrick Manning, before you guys all ascended to office, I want to get a very clear answer from you on this. When it comes to the border patrols during your tenure or your government's tenure in office, was our borders soundly secured as far as, you know, with whatever technology that was there at the time. Can you speak on that? [00:25:05] Speaker A: Yes. I mean, I can't speak for the whole cabinet, okay. But from what I know and what I was responsible for and what I initiated, et cetera, but yes, that we were heading very much in the right direction because the fix is not an immediate fix, okay? You have to fix. You have to protect your borders first. Then you have the issue of the legal importation. This is not illegal imports. Illegal importation of, of whatever goods and barrel, et cetera, coming through the legal ports. And it is said that the majority of arms that come into this country come from the United States. Okay? Because that is where these arms are manufactured and they come from the United States and they come through a legal port. Right. So we're trying to make so with the initiation of container scanners, it was one of the first Things okay. To get that done, putting scanners at the airport, putting scanners at the barrel shop. Okay. And those are immediate things that we did to be able to ensure that at least there's some protection. At least you're going to shut off at least one conduit for bringing in illegal stuff. [00:26:22] Speaker B: So let me add issue of who. [00:26:25] Speaker A: Is operating these cameras. There is the issue of customs officers doing the examination. I was speaking one time to the control of customs and he put me in my place. He said, I want to tell you, I don't answer to you. I say, all right, boss, I wow, that's your how you want to operate. I'm cool with that, you know. But let me ask you within the public service also. [00:26:50] Speaker B: Well, let me ask you something. We familiar with the issues public in the public service and the way the disrespectful way they handle things sometimes we get that. But let me ask you something. When it comes down to now, how is your, how was the opposition in your, in your respected opinion faring with supporting the government to bring legislation or bring certain initiatives to the fore? I mean, there have been a lot of crosstalk that we need the support of the opposition to come in and do certain things. You know, what is your consensus there? Is the opposition supporting government to get crime under control? [00:27:25] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I think the parliament has to come together. And again, I don't like bringing in all this petty politics. But when you have the minister of energy, okay, it was a hot mic standing up, saying the most derogatory, vulgar things about the leader of the opposition. How are you going to then pick up the phone, walk across the aisle and go and say, by the way, forget what you said, I talking to you now, we really want your help with this next bill. [00:27:53] Speaker B: Yeah, but Mr. KDEs, but Mr. Katie, as you mentioned, you don't want to bring the petty politics in it. And I could agree with you, the hot mic incident was cross talk, parlor talk, rum shop talk between his colleagues. Right. But at the end of the day, are we concerned about the hot mic issue, the petty talk or the derogatory things that were said to the opposition or are we concerned about the safety and security of the citizens? So even if I hear you say something vile about me, okay, that's something personal between us. But when it comes down to national issues, can we work together? And it seems to me based on what you said, the petty politics, the pettiness, it's interfering and it shouldn't. [00:28:38] Speaker A: It should not. But there's a long History of that. The line between the two is a long, long history. [00:28:46] Speaker B: So Mr. Katie's. When will it finish? [00:28:52] Speaker A: It takes real people, serious people, serious citizens of Trinidad and Tobago to be able to sit down and say, okay, what went on? Went on. Okay, let's put that behind us. I am talking to you, Mano Mano now. And it would have to be prime minister speaking to the leader of the opposition. Two of them sitting down, Mano Mano saying, okay, we need to get this thing done. [00:29:17] Speaker B: And that's the point. And that's the point I'm making. [00:29:21] Speaker A: I don't. I don't. Thank you. But I don't think that approach has ever been taken where you sit down. Yes, we disagree on many things. This we need to fix. That has not happened. [00:29:35] Speaker B: Well, I beg to differ. I can't make a pronouncement on it. And I think it's premature for me to say that a phone call between the both leaders did not happen or attempts wasn't made by the prime minister to the opposition or the opposition to the prime Minister. I can't say that I haven't seen or heard. But from what we are seeing, it seems as though the pettiness is affecting national security matters in Trinidad and Tobago and our citizens suffer because of it. Stuart Young did come out. The honorable minister. The honorable minister did come out, Right? So the honorable minister came out and we all. We all, I mean, neighbors just do it. People. And work colleagues in the workspace does it. But even if work colleagues upset with each other, we might be vexed with management. But you know what? We come together for the common cause. The company has to go forward. We have to treat the customers right, because it affects my salary. If I don't treat my customer right, I can't say, well, you know, I vex with the boss upstairs. I don't do my part because if the customer doesn't pay the money, I don't get paid. And I want to get paid. So I'm gonna do my job. So I'm simply saying, putting the pettiness aside, the opposition is time that the opposition speak on national issues in a very serious manner and engage the Prime Minister. If the prime minister is not engaging you. That's all I'm saying. And when it comes to the policies. [00:30:53] Speaker A: And procedures, I totally go ahead, make a point. [00:30:57] Speaker B: I'm listening. [00:30:58] Speaker A: Yes. Well, I don't know. I totally agree. I totally agree with what you're saying, but who is there in the parliament now? Can that actually happen? [00:31:08] Speaker B: Good question. [00:31:11] Speaker A: I am not hearing it, I'm not seeing it. But it takes two to tango, okay? And pick up the phone, go and sit down with the leader of the opposition and say, come, you tell me what you want. I this is what I want. You all come to some compromise. Yeah, you know, but you have talk from previous administration with the same who's prime minister now, when he was leader of the opposition, he said the opposition here not to support no government, you know, all their own, you know. And that is in that is the stupid talk that we get out of our parliamentarians on both sides, that stupid talk. And all of us in the middle, all of us plebians in the middle waiting to get. Waiting for the gunshot, you know, and I agree totally with you, this is not right. This thing has to fix. [00:31:58] Speaker B: Well, Mr. Katie's, I want to thank you so much for taking the moment out for the last 35, 40 minutes to chat with me. Unfortunately, we have to bring this interview to an end. Please don't be a stranger to us here on Freedom 106.5 FM. We'll continue to have debates and discussions. It can get a little heated, but we can come to a common ground that we both want to see a betterment in Trinidad and Tobago. [00:32:19] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability. The all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5.