Crime
POLICE OPERATION utilizes NEW Stop and Search laws
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, February 27, 2023 – The Royal TCI Police Force has for the first time exercised their newly
conferred stop and search laws which allow them to search any person on the islands without a warrant.
In a press release early Sunday morning they indicated that the powers had been called upon at the Versace nightclub in Providenciales.
Eyewitness reports describe the police swooping into the club around 12 am Saturday morning in significant numbers and several residents being escorted from the club; their cars being searched thoroughly and at least one being arrested.
The operation, about which details came straight from Trevor Botting, TCI Police Commissioner was rolled out to ‘prevent serious crime and detect those people who may be involved.’
Police say they were informed people with possible criminal connections were at the club and shared photos of at
least one person being led away in handcuffs. The ‘stop and search’ law (section 36 A(1)(a) of the Police Force (Amended) Ordinance 2022) gives the Commissioner power to authorize officers to frisk residents in anticipation of violence, should he suspect it is necessary.
It allows an officer to ‘stop any person or vehicle and make any search he thinks fit whether or not he has any grounds for suspecting that the person or vehicle is carrying weapons or articles of that kind’.
The operation was headed by the country’s newest superintendent Head of Crime, Safeguarding and Public Protection Superintendent Dean Holden, who said in that statement:
“Events of this nature have in the past resulted in incidents of serious violent crime. This policing operation was
particularly aimed at preventing and disrupting such incidents.”
Police have not indicated that they made any significant finds or arrests during the operation barring a quantity of marijuana.
Reactions to the operation were varied with some residents denouncing it and others applauding it.
Garfield Ekon
Staff Writer
USA, September 21, 2024 – Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has been charged with serious sex offenses from a 14-page indictment, accusing him of racketeering, sex trafficking by force and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Mr. Combs, 54, was arrested on Monday evening, with allegations of running a criminal enterprise from at least 2008 that relied on drugs and violence to force women to “fulfill his sexual desires”, according to prosecutors. A New York federal judge remanded the musician in custody on Tuesday after prosecutors argued he was a “serious flight risk”.
If convicted on all three counts, the rapper and record producer faces a sentence of 15 years up to life in prison. Asked by US Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky how he wished to plead, Mr. Combs stood up and said: “not guilty”.
According to court documents, Mr. Combs “wielded the power” of his status to “lure female victims, to engage in extended sex acts” called “Freak Offs”. During Freak Offs, Combs distributed a variety of controlled substances to victims, in part to keep the victims “obedient and compliant,” the indictment said.
In a news briefing, US prosecutor Damian Williams said officials found firearms, ammunition and more than 1,000 bottles of lubricant during raids on Mr. Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles, about six months ago. Mr. Williams said federal agents also found three semi-automatic rifles with defaced serial numbers, and a drum magazine.
He told reporters that further charges were possible, without offering details.
Mr. Agnifilo, the musician’s lawyer, maintained, “there’s no coercion and no crime.”
“He’s not afraid of the charges,” he said, adding that he believed Mr. Combs was the target of “an unjust prosecution”.
In court documents, federal prosecutors said that Mr. Combs had “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct”.
Prosecutors accuse Mr. Combs of “creating a criminal enterprise” whose members – under his direction – engaged in sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson and bribery.
“On numerous occasions”, the documents said, Mr. Combs assaulted women by “striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them”.
The indictment did not specify how many women were alleged victims.
It also does not accuse Mr. Combs himself of engaging directly in unwanted sexual acts with women.
Last November, his ex-girlfriend, singer Casandra Elizabeth Ventura, filed a civil lawsuit against him that included graphic descriptions of violent abuse.
Sean “Diddy” Combs denied the accusations, but settled the case a day after it was filed.
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