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Trinidad's Chaguaramas named in $830m drug bust off Spain

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Trinidad's Chaguaramas Named In $830m Drug Bust Off Spain

Postby Rooki3 » September 29th, 2010, 3:01 am

British and Spanish police are investigating why 1.5 tonnes of cocaine, worth close to $1 billion, left Chaguaramas earlier this month aboard a yacht headed for Spain. The yacht was traced across the Atlantic Ocean by satellite after it left Trinidad until Spanish Police intercepted it on Monday. The drug haul showed similar signs to one of the biggest drug cases in Ireland two years ago, which also had strong links to T&T. The La Flibuste yacht, a UK-flagged vessel, was moored at Chaguaramas earlier this month before leaving with the cargo of 1.5 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a false roof of two of the cabins.
The cocaine is worth a staggering 83 million pounds sterling, which at today’s exchange rate amounts to TT$830 million. As it left Chaguaramas it was traced by satellite and tailed by British intelligence Officers. On Monday, officers of the Special Operations Unit, of the Spanish National Police, raided the vessel some 120 miles of Cadiz, Portugal, and transported it to Spain. Three men, a Spaniard and two Frenchmen, are being questioned about from whom in T&T they collected the drugs and how they managed to make it out of the country undetected. Spanish police are saying further arrests may follow soon.
The operation, which was carried out with the co-operation of British police, began early this month when police became aware of the yacht moored in Port-of-Spain, according to a statement issued by the Spanish police. Spanish police say they were informed the yacht had cruised off Trinidad just under a month ago and was heading for a Spanish marina. It is not clear whether local law enforcement officers played any part in the tip-off. Intelligence agencies in Spain and England are probing deeper because of the similarity between this bust and one in 2008, in which the exact amount of cocaine was also found on a yacht that originated from Trinidad. That yacht, Dances with Waves, also was tracked from Trinidad across the Atlantic by a US spy satellite.
It developed engine trouble off the coast of Ireland before being intercepted. Three men who were arrested and tried in that matter were said to have travelled to T&T, via Spain and Venezuela, and bought the vessel In T&T. In 2002 a British court was told several politicians from Trinidad were said to have had a close alliance with a British millionaire-drug-pusher, who was at the time in hiding from British authorities. Those reports were carried in the local media, identifying a number of places in Chaguaramas, said to be responsible for the outfitting and loading of cocaine on vessels for overseas delivery. The court had heard cocaine was moving from Latin America, through Trinidad, to small seaports in southern England. A yacht, known as the Sea Mist, was interdicted in Ireland and 599 kilos of cocaine were discovered by Irish customs.
The captain of that vessel, John Ewart, who was subsequently sentenced to 17 years imprisonment for illicit drug-trafficking, reportedly told the international press the Sea Mist was outfitted and loaded in Chaguaramas. The court also heard that in conjunction with the Sea Mist a series of yachts left their Chaguaramas anchorages laden with cocaine and even heroin for England and ports in Europe. Two other vessels also were given similar treatment at Chaguaramas. They are the yacht The Aquarius, with 226.6 kilos of cocaine for delivery to Antigua in 1994, and The Obsession, with over 200 kilos of cocaine destined for Britain in 1996. Local intelligence authorities are said to be closely working with their international counterparts on Monday’s bust.

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Network of NGOs hails women awardees

Network of NGOs hails women awardees

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Thu Sep 01 2011

The Network of NGOs of T&T for the Advancement of Women has extended congratulations to this year's women recipients of national awards, including its members-Hazel Brown, Diana Mahabir-Wyatt and Brenda Gopeesingh. They each received the newly-created award, Medal for the Development of Women (Gold) for their dedicated work in advancing women's rights and issues, at Wednesday's Independence Day awards ceremony at Queen's Hall, St Ann's.

In a release issued yesterday, Dr Kris Rampersad, international relations director for the Network of NGOs, stated: "The awards to these women are particularly significant as the Network ends a quarter century of activities in T&T. "The three women singled out for their contribution to women are among those who have over the years been relentless in the efforts for recognising the contribution of women to our society. "The Network is particularly proud that the work of its members has been recognised so profusely in this, the first year, of a special category of awards for women.

"We, of course, also acknowledge with pride the work and achievements of our co-ordinator, Hazel Brown, who, despite personal challenges, continues to diligently keep the women's agenda in focus."

The Network said it was pleased to see that this year's awardees recognised "the exemplary work of several other professional women as key contributors to national social and economic well-being, among them, two of four recipients of the highest honour, the Order of T&T in Mrs Zalayhar Hassanali and Helen Bhagwansingh."

Other national awardees were not left out of the Network's congratulatory message. "That at least one-third of the awardees this year were women tells that we are moving closer to full recognition, acknowledgement and factoring of the value of women's work to the development of our society in all spheres," the release said. "We hope that these awards will bring into sharper focus the merits of our slogan that all issues are women's issues, as is implied in awards to Bhagwansingh, a pioneer and entrepreneur; attorney Stephanie Daly, educator Susan Craig, entertainer Denyse Plummer, Judge Gladys Gafoor, businesswoman Irma Simonette, Joan Bishop, nurse Jean Grayson and Bernice Parris, policewomen Margaret Sampson-Brown and Sheila Prince.

"The Network looks forward to equally meaningful incorporation of women's perspectives across all sectors and into policy, decision making, implementations and actions for more meaningful and equitable development of T&T."

Network of NGOs hails women awardees | The Trinidad Guardian Thu Sep 01 2011

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Celebrating the role of women

Celebrating the role of women by Dr Kris Rampersad 20110831 The recognition given to the work of a number of women who have been toiling in the vineyard for many years, working at the human development of women and their communities, is of great significance and so for a number of reasons. The first and perhaps most important element of the recognition is that the work in communities and amongst women has been done. The historical reality is that women have been among the most disadvantaged groups in Caribbean society while making great contributions to family and social life, education, economic development, even in the severe business of the development of the political culture and its organisations. The fact that a woman now sits in the highest political office of political leader and prime minister is testimony to that fact. But even more important has been the work of tens of thousands of women in holding their families together, with grandmothers, aunts, even the traditional "aunty" and "nennen" from next door featuring in the bringing up of children. Award recipients such as Hazel Brown, Diana Mahabir-Wyatt and Brenda Goopeesingh, in their own right and representative of dozens of women going back over several generations, deserve being recognised for the work they have done to empower women to believe in themselves and to take charge of their lives and those of their children. The second important consequence of the recognition must be the message it sends to the national community that the Government believes that women and the work they do are important for national development. Too often has that fact gone unrecognised. One classic example of the non-recognition, even in these supposedly evolved times, is the fact that work in the household, done mainly by women, is not included in the national statistics. In identifying and awarding women who have made their contribution in the home-and surely the modern woman who is making a double contribution through the work they do in the office, farm and elsewhere-the society has an opportunity to make a quicker transit to a greater level of consciousness about the role of women in modern society. For the likes of the specific women mentioned above, the award must be particularly satisfying. This is so because for decades these women and the causes they have stood for have not always been popular. In particular Brown and Mahabir-Wyatt have not been afraid to say publicly and loudly things which have not been popular. Indeed they have been the butt of male-oriented humour, which has mocked their gender and their capacity to lead in a meaningful manner. The society as a whole must salute them and be happy for them for having the courage (perhaps at times it required not being afraid) to take on physically opponents by marching and holding the placards on the picket lines. The work of Helen Bhagwansingh, separate and apart from being part of a team to have developed and now manage a massive and successful commercial organisation, has been her generosity to deprived persons and communities. She has also funded community-oriented health research. The former first lady has quietly gone about the community work she has been engaged in over many decades and it is good too that that work has been recognised. Outside of that group of women recognised specifically for their community-oriented work, women in public life such as retired judge, Gladys Gafoor, academic sociologist, Susan Craig, retired police officer, Margaret Sampson-Brown, Irma Simonette, culture and calypsonian Denyse Plummer are all deserving. It is a sign of maturing society by this special recognition. Celebrating the role of women | The Trinidad Guardian