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Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) po­lit­i­cal leader Prakash Ra­mad­har has en­dorsed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s de­ci­sion to sup­port the Unit­ed States and its in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners in tak­ing a stronger stance against nar­co­traf­fick­ing and nar­co-states.

Ra­mad­har said Trinidad and To­ba­go could not con­tin­ue to sit idly by while cor­rup­tion, or­gan­ised crime, and the drug trade erod­ed the na­tion’s in­sti­tu­tions. He warned that crim­i­nal­i­ty had al­ready seeped in­to schools, with gangs re­cruit­ing chil­dren and ex­pos­ing them to drugs at younger ages.

“The play­ground is now be­com­ing a place of re­cruit­ment for the foot sol­diers of mur­der and may­hem, by gang lead­ers who are them­selves con­trolled by an ever-es­ca­lat­ing hi­er­ar­chy of in­ter­na­tion­al and so­phis­ti­cat­ed or­gan­i­sa­tions,” he said.