Corruption, Cocaine and Murder in Trinidad

come on take a walk gentlemen let's see what you got should i be scared right now so we're here in east port of spain trinidad and when people think of trinidad usually they think of steel pan drums carnival celebrations and good times and trinidad itself is a pretty rich country they've got plenty of oil and gas deposits and the gdp per capita here is 18 000. unfortunately over the past 15 years trinidad since murder rate go from about 100 a year to 500 a year and that's mostly due to boring gang factions in neighborhoods below me like laventille which fight ruthless turf wars sometimes over just one block so how did these gangs get so powerful many of them have gotten intertwined in politics doing favors for politicians and receiving lucrative government contracts for public works and construction projects meant to help alleviate unemployment adding to that trinidad is only seven miles away from venezuela in the past few years it has reemerged as a major transshipment point for drugs to west africa and the united states border patrol officers say they found 732 pounds worth of cocaine a recent boston virginia had over 100 million dollars worth of cocaine that originated in trinidad so much cocaine we can't even tell you where we shot this video while the drugs only stop in trinidad temporarily the guns brought in as protections stay many on the island think that corrupt politicians and business leaders are heavily involved and they say that this culture of corruption and impunity filters down to the street level where gangs do not fear the rule of law we're on our way to meet hal greaves a former actor now turned community activist who works with a lot of the local games he's one of the few people who can move throughout all territories how where are we right now we're in canada and this community has been devastated by the recent fighting between the guns um several of the families have been moved out the buildings have been condemned we could see where walls have been broken down there are bullet holes all throughout the community there was one gang there and some years ago the gang broke into almost five actions we ended murderous rage and the boys will tell you that now the kitchen is at with the bedroom and they hate they had for people who they grew up among they share the same house almost once a week they'll be shooting in the area and the government's just powerless to stop it they're not powerless they're just not focused the government has tried a number of tools to stop the violence including curfews and anti-gang legislation passed in 2011 that carries a possible jail sentence of 20 years just for being in a gang most of the responsibility though falls on trinidad's embattled police force who have been criticized recently for extrajudicial killing and over aggressive policing we went to meet up with the northeast division task force so this is an uzi that these guys pulled off a gangster about two nights ago there was a shootout and they killed two people we're about to go on patrol with the northeast division task force in trinidad port of spain uh from what we're told they're sort of the baddest cops out there right now and this is why because they pull this off people that shoot at them our guide was inspector roger alexander a large man with a fearsome reputation well known as an officer not to be trifled with so we've been at the police station for about five minutes uh they're saying it was basically a quiet night a call just went over a guy got shot six times so we're heading out right now with the task force to see what's going on it's routine so right now you'll see the place look very dismal everybody look up it's crazy though it's friday night and there's nobody there's nobody on the streets anything could happen anything you see the shells right there blood right at the scene of a shooting that just happened um we heard of the speaker that the guy was shot six times blood and shells everywhere it's pretty tense around here we're being told not to get too close um but the inspector is a large man and i'm gonna hide behind him in case anything happens so what happened i mean how do these gangs just take control like this just money drugs yeah two or four there are some people calling themselves rasta city yeah and some is the muslims rasta city have a problem with the muslims so they're killing out each other back and forth back and forth some people in the area and some of the areas consider ourselves community leaders but then those community leaders say about getting jobs to the youth building construction in the area to help the government exactly yeah but what happened to is that um instead of treating it only that they also want to treat with a narcotic aspect of data these government contracts for programs originally created as a means of sharing trinidad and tobago's oil and gas wealth have backfired and given way to corruption working to strengthen the very gangs the government is trying to rein in it's making our job nine times harder because long time when we knew all they had was drugs and guns and they still come out and do robberies and we used to catch them but how do you catch a man now who's getting illegal money it's a little more difficult it's easy to hide too does it feel sometimes like like you're fighting a losing battle yeah honestly the police are frustrated in this country because a crime rate is going up public confidence in policing is at an all-time low police don't get the kind of respect that they would hope for in a country and a lot of times the police have been fingered in a lot of sort of unsavory practices as well the traditional methods of law enforcement aren't working as quickly they're not coming up with much that's innovative and creative and there's a certain level of frustration so what we see at the end of the day sometimes is that the criminals are pretty much shot dead instead of going through the work to bring them in alive to prosecute them and to probably get that information to beef up your intelligence to really um decimate the kind of organizations and criminal units you're seeing on the street we're not seeing that so i guess shooting criminals and you know dead has become the easy way out for law enforcement the inspector wanted to show us the house where his men killed two alleged gangsters the night before smack dab in the front lines of a raging gang war this area if you come here any day you might from the time you're reaching you'll see people running all over the place right they know we kind of know nonsense around here too so they don't take much chances with us so would you come here by yourself in this car you'd only come with two or three other police officer cars with you who me yeah all right come on myself other cops other other normal cops when they come here by themselves no never huh they ain't coming here all right stop that wait up there come on take a walk gentlemen let's see what you got should i should i be scared right now we're at the borderline 11-2 um sort of this dividing line where there's a gang war between the muslims and across the city uh this is close to where there was a shootout a few days ago oh i'm out of breath this is the hills right here this high ground the officer's foot went through here while he gone fight going all right yeah you put one two there so they put the gun through there and start fighting i got you jesus it's a mess alright alright so the officer came here boom boom exchange your foot going to hole up so the next one is yeah this bullet holes all over here a lot of blood still flies buzzing around fresh blood thick whenever we ask people about what happened to change trinidad into such a violent place where people are willing to take on the police most raced it to one event that changed the country forever in 1990 trinidad was home to the only attempted militant islamic overthrow of a government in the western hemisphere they said that after the coup in 1990 it was sort of a wake up point for a lot of people uh in these communities that the government had no control and the way to solve a problem was with guns now we're talking that coup affected the nation the society on a whole physically psychologically and otherwise it will damage the place and it would have set the trend that you know what if you have a problem let's take on the forces let's take on the government that's who they might be it shows the weakness it show the weakness and when when weakness is exposed many people take advantage of weakness on july 27 1990 a man named abu bakr the leader of an islamic group called yamato muslim and 115 of his followers violently took over tv stations and government buildings including the parliament and laid siege to the country for six days at 6 pm this afternoon the government of trinidad and tobago was overthrown 24 people were killed in the chaos and they even shot the prime minister because of an amnesty negotiation they were free two years later and have been continuously in trouble since then we went to abu bakr's compound to talk to him about what went wrong in trinidad i've been charged for murder i've been charged for conspiracy to murder i've been charged for treason i've been charged for terrorism i've been charged for guns and ammunition nothing has stuck because they just fabricated all these cases against me we're hearing a lot now that the narco trade here is ramping up a lot yes is it coming from is it coming from politicians is it coming from business people where is it coming from everybody's involved everybody's involved everybody the police the everybody is involved the coast guard everybody's involved our next one neighbor seven miles is venezuela and then right next to valencia is columbia is we and right here this is the trans shipment point go and look at the affluence and train that and you and and you you know in brooklyn you can find the affluence that exists in trinidad no way you know we saw in the newspaper that the unemployment rate was was four percent uh do you think that's accurate no it's not accurate far from being accurate there's a lie there's a big lie there's no single day without a mother there too why people would be killing each other if they they are employed but there was pop there was poverty 20 years ago you know and there's there's poverty now but you don't see you didn't see 500 murders a year 20 years ago now you see five minutes i was in charge oh because you were in charge i'm telling you i was in charge 20 20 years ago before 1990 i was in charge of the ground just before 1990 none of the burner rates none of the murderers switch 100 because we cleaned up the drugs we cleaned up everything after you go to jail what happens you lose power of the streets no no we no we just left it you just left the streets we left it we say that's where you won well we left it and that was the problem now we left it who's controlling it right now who control anyone who's controlling the strength it's out of control because all the young people just come up after them who don't have the experience at the streets who didn't have to wield the control i mean and and a lot of the people were the community leaders were people who were in our organization we controlled the streets so are we getting better or we're getting worse it's getting worse every day this place is going to explode there is a perpetual quest for dominance you go to sleep friday night and the person that was dominant friday saturday morning they find him dead then starts all over again and the instability starts all over again and the war for power starts all over again without baker or another strong man in power different leaders are doing whatever is necessary to assert control over territory and contracts the gangs have been enshrined in the consciousness of communities the gangs play a very strategic role when it comes to distribution of wealth in our communities and a lot of our communities have felt neglected for a very long time from government so they're not getting the jobs from government they're not getting the kind of resources they want from the government but somehow the gang seems to be the government in our communities and in trinidad and tobago they don't call themselves gangs they see themselves more as community groups more as organizations more as community leaders these are the leaders of the community who are receiving these contracts from government to provide the kind of jobs it could be uh payback for getting the votes as well they see themselves as business organization and that business can run from government contracts to drugs it's whatever is the big business on the street today and they're going to get involved in that no business passes them by we headed to beethoven gardens a neighborhood notorious for being a roster city stronghold to talk to spanish beethoven's community leader some consider him a gang leader but to a lot of people in the community he's the only one bringing jobs and social services to the impoverished neighborhood spanish so uh where are we right now what's this neighborhood what's it like 24th street beethoven gardens this is called a chantey tongue in the earlies you know is it is class as ghetto but it's a part of the country and so many people might be going through more property than normal it seems like no one's really helping out here so you're building some houses well as much as i could do i'm a registered contractor i work hard for what i want once i get from the government something i earn money i spent it into things we could help to employ and you know elevate youth around me you talk to some of the police and some of the some of the uh politicians yeah and they point to you when they say he's a community leader but he's a gang leader too do you think that's not fair no it can't be fear i don't know a gang leader i don't order nobody children the one kill i don't know about each other one rob or t for kidnapping yeah attempt me on my life son but how many well they recall about one center sign or twice what happened they came for you they they came for you in your house or you were driving no driving you know coming out or certain places might stand up on fire shots at the vehicle i drive you know what's about nine or ten shot shoot of the vehicle and that was how long ago was that last year last year damn and you got people recognized that car so i imagine you gotta be you gotta be real careful all the time yeah i was driving up i don't drive down so again i i really drive one thing too long i but it's all because i named spanish and i live in vitamin or somebody from our next community might see me and be done with yelling people every year so it could happen if you're from vietnam and certain parts of trinidad if you're from soon after then be telling me i lost you yes and what's going on right here you're you got turntables you got speakers you're putting on the camera music certain things as i work i buy music i like that i grew up besides bringing jobs spanish always puts on events like soccer matches and parties to support his community this place over here spanish is actually building this for the people in the community and uh it's just a little taste of how these community leaders really take care of their own and why they have so much respect the party was a really good time it was clear that there was a lot of love in the community and that everyone took care of each other almost like a big family it was easy to forget that this neighborhood was often a war zone and that other gang sometimes came to these parties and shot them up now that we were in with spanish we were able to meet some of the guys actually pulling the triggers in these gang wars what are you saying trinidad when you drink like this oppa no what do you say cheers it's what we say in new york sometimes ready it means to life to life it's ready why do you um why do you have to carry that around why do you feel the need you gotta carry a firearm i don't know how if you've got to defend yourself here and you get to who are you who are you defending yourself against from the hills many man on the hills that's fast outside of anybody anybody anybody any time any time any day no one from one distance can lions and if someone from this end goes to that end shots get fired yeah that's it that's it done done they finished it damn have you lost a lot of friends we know the murder right here is crazy a lot of the last shots fired 12 people pick up rapid-fire automatic weapons you know the police they're going after the young kids on the streets the big fish no one's going after the big fish no the big fish don't come dude direct big fish are what politicians businessmen them is you mean and they're the ones who are bringing the drugs in too yeah behind the curtain the men behind the curtain them hiding yeah leaving us in the front line the pool is low no extra money they take money of course and what about the drugs and the guns what is that it comes from venezuela where does it come from come from venezuela which is the politician and then just get it in much easier yeah we hear that coast guard all them they just take bribes yeah the drugs come in yeah and i already think you're right here in china i don't know well you can see about 10 years ago and the whole thing changed up everybody's trying to take bribe cause god police everybody only the last time and that's when the murder rate started going really really hard how many actions start yeah because everybody were piecing your kick money changes everything yeah contracts money the longest it isn't the street guys who are making the serious money in trinidad dreddy said something we kept hearing behind the drug trade and the gangs are what trinidadians call the big fish the untouchable nameless elites who treat the country like their own narco state buy off politicians and foster endemic corruption that affects all levels of society to understand the murder rate to understand the coup and to understand all the complexities you must understand the games the politicians have played young people are seeing that sometimes our politicians doing again what they want and they're not seeing any sort of repercussions any sort of consequences the reality is is that the most powerful players who are resident and trained at an illicit drug trade have then the need to purchase impunity from the state they have to be political financials and that is what drives the endemic corruption of the society when people speak of corruption in society all they look at is the most visible means is the lower level ones the ones who get caught they cannot bribe and things like that the traffickers who live in trinidad tobago their wheels power within the state structure to the extent that nobody in the state structure can bring them down they are in fact untouchable until the authorities in trinidad are ready to go after the big fish it doesn't seem like much will change on the ground literally a few thousand people have been killed in these areas we need help you think that some of that money that's coming from all the oil that's on the island would trickle down here but from everything everyone's telling us it doesn't come down here at all no because we don't see here as part of trinidad we see here as a saw a diseased part that we wish would go away i tell people if your left kidney is cancerous and you ignore it it will kill you if you focus on the parts of your body that healthy and you say that left kidney is just a pain and a bother you're going to die and the nation is dying because we're treating a part of us as though it will go away and dry up one day one

Channel: VICE News

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Keywords: corruption trinidad, Murder in Trinidad, corruption cocaine murder, Trinidad, mark bassant, Corruption, Murder, Cocaine, coup, smuggling, construction, community leader, world, vice, vice news, short-form docs, news, VICE Magazine, documentary, interviews, world news, Abu Bakr, videos, vice guide, vbs.tv, vice.com, vice mag, vice videos, vicevideos, documentaries, noisey, funny videos, cnn, weed, nwo, vbsdottv, vbs, vice presents, motherboard, cia, Gangs, Drugs, Port of Spain

Id: tnpaaVB4XyA

Length: 23min 20sec (1400 seconds)

Published: Tue May 20 2014