Commissioner Visits Krooman Lagoon Residents
The Krooman Lagoon – it is the location where over two hundred families have been squatting for the years and just last week, where an internal brawl among group members of the MS-13 gang operatives led to a an assault upon a family and a suspected arson upon their house on Sunday night. Today, Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams took his Police Department’s “Meet and Greet” initiative to the residents. News Five’s Marion Ali was there and has the details in this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The swampy terrain in the Krooman Lagoon area, in the Collet Division did not stop the Commissioner of Police from visiting with the residents of the area. The wet planks on the London bridges – some of which are broken or compromised by the constant weight of people walking on them – also did not deter him from going into the nooks and crannies of the area. After he emerged from the area, he told reporters what his goals are.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“There’s a certain group of young men who seemingly want to be in charge of the area. They want to control everything, including the water supply. What we got to understand is that when they’re not happy they turn off the water supply and nobody has water within the area because from what I’m told, it is not WASA or BWS that controls the water supply; it is a particular person or family. We want to do a sweep-through because we do believe that many of these persons back here are irregular migrants and if it is that they are irregular migrants and they’re causing us problems, then we don’t need them in our country.”
In the days to come, the Police Department hopes to file gang-related charges against those who are members of the MS-13 gang, which the Commissioner hopes will, in the meantime, deter criminal activity. To help him diffuse the tension is a team of officers.
Chester Williams
“I have along with me my deputy, Mrs. Magdaleno, who is in another area; we also have Mr. Grinage; we have Mr. Garcia; and we have other senior officers out of Belmopan. We saw the need to come into this area today and do meet and greet. I must say today that Mr. Guzman, who is the Commander of Community Policing nationally, is also on the ground with us today. We have also erected a police tent within this area so we can maintain a police presence.”
In tandem with the intervention, the G-I-3 Unit has also been tasked with entering the neighbourhood and suppressing, as much as possible the gang activity which also holds the squatters to ransom.
The low-lying landscape poses a challenge for the police to conduct mobile patrols, hence Williams has instituted a police foot patrol along the network of London bridges that lead to the homes. And for the very hard-to-reach houses, the police are using a drone to hover over and take images. But a lot of the information gathered is dependent on the interaction and trust between the police officers and the residents.
Chester Williams
“One of the discussions I had with some of those who are involved today, I said to her that the information is that her sons are the leaders of a particular gang in this area and as a parent she needs to do what she can to speak to her children so that they desist from doing what it is that they continue to do to intimidate people. Yes, she shy away from me – what I said to her, but at the same time, did not deny the fact. We’re still having difficulty getting cooperation from the victims of the chopping, but we believe that we’ll be able to get the cooperation eventually.”
Williams indicated that two of the main suspects of the assault are in police custody and the hunt is on for two more. They will be charged in due course. All of them are reportedly brothers. Marion Ali for News Five.
Williams says the number of irregular immigrants who are suspected of intimidating the residents are fewer than twenty.
