Five men have been placed un­der pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion or­ders over a four-day pe­ri­od, as the State con­tin­ues to in­voke pro­vi­sions of the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2026, to dis­rupt gang ac­tiv­i­ty and vi­o­lent crime.

The or­ders, is­sued be­tween March 15 and March 18, tar­get­ed in­di­vid­u­als al­leged­ly in­volved in or­gan­ised crim­i­nal groups op­er­at­ing across north, Port-of-Spain and south Trinidad.

On March 15, a de­ten­tion or­der was is­sued for Shaquille “Jobe” Quamie Jobe, of La Hor­quet­ta. Au­thor­i­ties al­leged he “has been cred­i­bly iden­ti­fied as a mem­ber of the La Hor­quet­ta Phase 7 Mus­lim gang” and that he and oth­ers “have re­cent­ly ex­e­cut­ed a se­ries of se­ri­ous firearm-re­lat­ed vi­o­lent in­ci­dents.” The or­der fur­ther claimed they “plan to im­mi­nent­ly car­ry out reprisal shoot­ings against gang ri­vals us­ing high-pow­ered firearms.”