Government source: “The foundations are about to be shaken”

The briefing came on a Wednesday afternoon, by telephone, from an official with direct knowledge of the Government’s security planning who asked not to be named because the operations had not been announced. “The foundations are about to be shaken,” the official said.

What the official described was a shift away from the street-level sweeps that have defined anti-crime policy in Trinidad and Tobago for two decades. The targets this time, the official said, are the accounts, the state contracts and the company registrations through which gang money is believed to be cleaned, and the accountants, attorneys and contractors who make that possible.

The official would not name any company or individual, would not say which agencies were involved beyond the Financial Intelligence Unit and the police Financial Investigations Branch, and would not give a timetable.

The approach is not new on paper. The Proceeds of Crime Act has allowed civil asset recovery for years, and the Unexplained Wealth legislation passed in 2024 was sold on the same promise. What has been missing is the part that happens in court. Forfeiture orders in this country remain rare, and prosecutions of the professionals who launder for gangs rarer still.

Intelligence-led campaigns carry a particular risk in a small country. Names travel faster than charges. A contractor named in a WhatsApp voice note loses a bank facility before any officer has knocked on the door, and if nothing is filed, nothing restores it.

I asked the Ministry of National Security for the number of unexplained wealth orders sought and granted since the law came into force. I will publish the figure when it is provided.