‘GARY MUST PROBE OTHER HIGH-SEA EPISODES’

WAS the high-sea incident involving senior police official Christian Chandler the only such recent episode of a top office holder? 

Well-placed sources are suggesting that Police Commissioner Gary Griffith conducts an investigation and that the media does research, as was done with respect to Chandler, Head of the Legal Unit of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. 

The matter involving Chandler – in which a young lady on a leisure boat made a distress call – only became public following a daily newspaper report several days later. 

Commissioner Griffith then said that Chandler “has proceeded on leave” pending the outcome of an investigation. 

Sources said there should be a probe and full disclosure on whether certain other pleasure crafts were found on the open seas in breach of the Covid-19 social distancing rules and other laws. 

They also urged that Griffith enquires into whether the Coast Guard came upon certain prominent people, including a highly recognisable national official, partying off north-west Trinidad on a vessel moored alongside an island. 

The sources urged that Griffith insists on a full report on similar vessels found with large complements of passengers outside of various areas of both islands. 

They stressed that this did not pertain to fishermen discovered on pirogues seeking to make a catch. 

One security source suggested that an inter-agency law enforcement team be set up to monitor breaches of relevant laws in national waters. 

This, he explained, would not be connected to patrols of the sea for narco- and human trafficking, but should concentrate on people flouting relevant other laws. 

That squad, he suggested, should work alongside the Institute of Marine Affairs on the matter of indiscriminate garbage disposal.  

Chandler, 43, was reportedly intercepted by the Coast Guard on a 45-foot pleasure craft with 13 others. 

The Public Health Ordinance currently forbids congregations in excess of five people. 

Griffith’s statement on Chandler proceeding on leave was issued on August 16, which was 11 days after the open-sea episode. 

The newspaper expose took place on August 15.