Se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers say the ar­rest of sev­er­al Trinida­di­an men and a Venezue­lan na­tion­al at sea, who were al­leged­ly on their way to col­lect a ship­ment of guns and il­le­gal drugs bound for this coun­try, is be­ing viewed as a ma­jor break­through in the fight against crime.

Yes­ter­day, se­nior in­tel­li­gence of­fi­cials con­firmed the au­then­tic­i­ty of a video cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia show­ing the ar­rest of, what ap­peared to be at least five T&T na­tion­als by Venezue­lan se­cu­ri­ty forces aboard a ves­sel in­ter­cept­ed in in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ters. The in­ci­dent, which oc­curred around Au­gust 13 or 14, is now be­ing linked to the broad­er transna­tion­al crim­i­nal net­works cur­rent­ly un­der scruti­ny as part of the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE).

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro con­firmed the ar­rests to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day. “My in­for­ma­tion is that they weren’t out there to col­lect fish.”