The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has bro­ken its si­lence, de­fend­ing Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der against on­go­ing al­le­ga­tions that his meet­ing with al­leged gang leader Ra­jaee Ali ear­li­er this year was un­sanc­tioned.

This comes hours af­ter a copy of a Re­quest for Per­mis­sion let­ter, signed by As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP) North West and Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Richard Smith, sur­faced on­line, ef­fec­tive­ly de­bunk­ing on­go­ing claims of a se­cret meet­ing with the al­leged gang­ster.

Con­firm­ing the let­ter was le­git­i­mate, Smith told Guardian Me­dia that Alexan­der “had not done any­thing wrong or il­le­gal”.