admin 
Photo of Suzette Martin of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service via CMC.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The lead investigator into the conduct of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Suzette Martin, Monday denied media reports that the files on the case have gone missing.
Newsday reported that “the file relating to a previous police investigation” into the conduct of Martin and three other officers in the Brent Thomas matter “has reportedly gone missing”.
But Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Curt Simon, the lead investigator, said he is unaware of any file gone missing after recently appointed Police Commissioner, Allister Guevarro, had announced that while Martin remains in her post, the police are investigating a matter in which a report had been submitted by a firearms dealer on June 18.
The newspaper had reported that Martin had formally requested a copy of the file from Simon but to date got no response.
“ I will tell you this, no file has gone missing in this investigation and while it is common knowledge that I, when I was DCP, I did comment on investigations and a file was being compiled that file is in my possession and no file has gone missing,” Simon told the 1.955fm radio station.
He said he had seen something where the DCP had “requested a file from me, no such request has ever been made of me from the DCP…during or after this thing has commenced,” he told radio listeners.
The probe into Martin was announced a few months after she led a high profile investigation into allegations of misbehaviour in public office against the then commissioner of police, Erla Harewood Christopher.
But last month, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Roger Gaspard SC, said there was no evidence to charge the then commissioner of police with any offence.
Guevarro told a news conference that he had received a report from a firearms dealer against Martin and that “matter was in the public domain and as a result of that I would have decided to take some decisive action in terms of bringing to the fore, accountability and transparency in dealing with the matter.
“The firearm dealer would have indicated certain acts were carried out against him and he felt this was bordering on criminal conduct,” the top cop said.
Guevarro said the probe is linked to Martin’s involvement in the 2022 arrest of firearms dealer and trainer Brent Thomas in Barbados.
Thomas, 61, was detained while awaiting a flight to the United States and later charged with three counts of possession of firearms and four counts of possession of explosives.
In April 2023, High Court judge Devindra Rampersad ruled that Thomas’ arrest, carried out by officers led by Martin, amounted to an “abduction.”
In July last year, the state formally went on record admitting that the detention and return of Thomas from Barbados in 2022 was unlawful.
