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Sev­er­al knives, ice picks, scis­sors, glass bot­tles and im­pro­vised weapons were be­lieved to have been aban­doned by “trou­ble­mak­ers” en­ter­ing down­town Port-of-Spain, po­lice said as sev­er­al road­blocks and check­points were es­tab­lished on the out­skirts of the city ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing.

The checks were part of a height­ened se­cu­ri­ty pres­ence, where the TTPS, the Port-of-Spain City Po­lice, Ca­nine Unit, the Tran­sit Po­lice and the De­fence Force col­lab­o­rat­ed to “fil­ter out,” weapons and oth­er il­lic­it items.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, head of the Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment (CID), Snr Supt Win­ston Ma­haraj, said the ef­forts to weed out crim­i­nals be­gan be­fore they could even reach the city’s bound­aries, with ran­dom road checks and “stop and search” ex­er­cis­es on the Beetham stretch of the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route (PBR).