KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Organised Crime and Intelligence Unit (OCIU) of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service is to be overhauled after a search of the hotel room of reggae artiste Buju Banton (real name Mark Myrie), who was in the twin-island republic for a show, left members of the police force with egg on their faces, the Jamaica Gleaner reported April 23.
The Trinidad Guardian reports that Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said the decision by the OCIU to search Banton’s hotel room on Saturday could have started a feud between Kingston and Port-of-Spain.
Griffith announced the revamping of the unit in the wake of the incident, saying while he had been contemplating it before, the embarrassment of the Banton raid made it an absolute necessity.
“This situation that took place recently with the search warrant with Buju Banton, I think again, based on intelligence, what you need to do is make sure there is proper surveillance. Someone obviously dropped the ball. It could have caused a major rift between Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica,” Griffith said.
“Strange enough, that is not the focus of the commissioner of police, but I saw it fit to meet Mr Buju Banton personally to look at the situation, and I think the situation was resolved.”
The search caused quite a stir on social media and Banton’s Instagram video about it had been viewed more than 300,000 times up to just after noon yesterday.
Griffith did not go into details about the impending OCIU changes, but promised to reveal all at a press conference on Wednesday. http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20190423/buju-raid-shake-tt-police-unit
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