Investigator to blow the gaff on Venezuelan trans-shipments of cocaine

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 By: David Coleman

Trinidadian author and investigator Daurius Figueira is scheduled to blow the gaff on Venezuelan trans-shipments of Colombian cocaine in a Trinidad radio broadcast scheduled for Sunday.  A specialist on narcotics investigations, Figueira says he has given key information to Trinidad & Tobago Special Branch police on how the drug shipments are controlled by his country's corrupt elites to fund a local cell of the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

In an interview with Newsday reporter Nalinee Seelal, Special Branch official Frank Diaz denied discussing details with Figueira and claimed that no reports had been forwarded to him, otherwise they would be thoroughly investigated.

Figueira, however, says that the Jamaat Al Muslimeen ... led by Imam Yasin Abu Bakr ... is not linked to Al Qaeda but that there are clear links with the Indo-Muslim community ... he claims that Al Qaeda members are not interested in toppling the T&T government but they concentrate on the drug trade, until assignments are shifted.

Figueira have preliminary details about the T&T branch of the Al Qaeda network at a crime conference saying that Al Qaeda is carrying out a thriving trade with drugs in T&T with the connivance of "some businessmen and politicians."   He said that Special Branch police had listened to what he had to say two months ago ... but they have not contacted him since then.

"I have a network of persons who carry out intelligence and information gathering operations in T&T but we don't know who is who since some of the most influential persons here are linked to Al Qaeda."

Figueira, who converted to Islam in 1990, claims that Al Qaeda members can be found in key offices throughout Trinidad, and their mission is to ensure that the large shipments of drugs from Venezuela and Colombia which pass through Trinidad & Tobago are chanelled to buyers ... "local Al Qaeda members are often visited by operatives from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, but they have not visited T&T since the 9/11 World Trade Centre bombings."

Darius Figueira says that Al Qaeda has recruited Trinidadians to go to Muslim countries for studies and that the terrorist network is also involved in the import of guns which are sold to criminal elements. He says that T&T has become a narco-democracy since nothing is being done to put a stop to the drug trade because Al Qaeda had penetrated all the key organizations in the country.