The escalating war between these two rival gangs has not only created uneasiness in the East Dry River area but also in the heart of Port-of-Spain when a message was sent to the Sixx boss by his rivals who shot up a car at City Gate injuring one man while a female relative of the Sixx boss escaped unhurt
Mark Bassant
Lead Editor, Investigative Desk
The sound of automatic gunfire from warring gangs pierced the Laventille hills two Mondays ago during the mid-morning period, causing children of the Rose Hill RC Primary School, fear in their eyes, to cower in terror.
Video of the incident viewed thousands of times on social media drew widespread condemnation and forced law enforcement to take decisive action through armed comfort patrols to protect the vulnerable, who were at risk whenever gunmen struck, boldly, picking off their targets with no thought for the innocents in their path.
Gang warfare and gang reprisal killings have not only spiralled out of control but innocent people have been shot and wounded and even killed in some cases. The number of murders for 2022 now stands at 524 and counting as it edges towards the second-highest murder count of 539 recorded in 2019. The country is hurtling towards meeting the record highest murder count ever–550 in 2008.
Residents of Laventille and its environs are familiar with the gang rivalry and what has pushed the Rose Hill community and others to the brink.
They said fighting for turf or territory, guns and drugs and other illicit items to ‘bad blood’ over who gets government contracts, plain jealousy or even a fallout over a female could trigger the ‘war’. Police sources also confirmed this.
A 33-year-old man familiar with the Basilon Street gang and residing in that area gave some insight into the Rose Hill shooting.
«That Rose Hill shooting a few weeks ago has a long history between two rival gangs, the Sixx gang in St Paul Street and the Seven gang in Basilon Street,» he said.
«It started before COVID-19 when the ‘Sixx boss’ and the ‘Seven boss’ had a falling out over a girl.»
After a heated exchange of words, he said, things got violent and subsequently out of hand.
The man claimed that the ‘Sixx boss’ sent several threats, at times using his social media handle via Instagram to do so.
«In 2021, his gang shot and killed a guy called «Channas» in Mango Rose and they (Seven gang) were not taking that. The ‘Sixx boss’ feel he could bully people and inject fear in them. People do not want that and they do not want him around here, and the Seven gang have to defend their life.
«The Sixx gang want to lock the block here and they are not going to allow that. We want to be able to come and go as we like but these days we cannot do that. They shoot at us any chance they get. Their foot soldiers are killing innocent people,» he claimed.
He said the shooting death of Dirwin Gookool on October 21, at the corner of Alexander Place and Laventille Road, was one such case.
The escalating war between these two rival gangs has not only created uneasiness in the East Dry River area but also in the heart of Port-of-Spain when a message was sent to the Sixx boss by his rivals who shot up a car at City Gate injuring one man while a female relative of the Sixx boss escaped unhurt.
As fear and tension grip the community, not even taxi drivers who work in the East Port-of-Spain area are immune to collateral damage. «They telling taxi drivers who work in this area don’t pick up anyone and drop them in this area because they will kill them,» another man said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
None of the residents from the area where the rival gangs are located is safe from a bullet.
«If they cannot get to who they want, somebody from the area will have to feel it and it is better them than us,» said the man who is familiar with the Basilon Street gang.
He explained that the gangs use diversionary tactics to distract their rivals at times so that they can come from another direction and shoot someone.
«So all of a sudden you will start to hear gunfire up the hill loud, loud and while everybody is centred on that, gunmen running in from another direction behind you and start to shoot,» said the Basilon street man.
«Children cannot even come out and play on the streets because gunmen are always looking to shoot somebody with who they warring.
«I will tell you people have to defend themselves and guns are not cheap. It is $7,000 to $25,000 (revolver and handguns) you might pay for a gun. The younger ones don’t have the money, but I know the other senior ones with connections high up getting firearms,» he said.
Another man from Trou Macaque, Laventille, also familiar with the gang activity, admitted the youths who have very little to look forward to in the area and with no access to jobs have been gravitating to gangs and illegal activities.
«The guns and drugs in the area have created rifts and some of them end up in these small crews. There are times certain contracts are given in specific areas and if someone does not get a piece of the action it is quite likely someone is going to end up dead. If you try to take something that is not yours you can also end up dead.
«This has been going on a long time now…I remember knowing about the Rasta and Muslim gangs and that is all I knew, but now is total chaos on the ground,» said a man who has known the life and served 13 years in jail for murder.
«Government has plenty of blame to take for this lasting gang problem,» he added.
«Now is a combination of things they are killing for: to take over somebody’s turf or jealousy and all kinds of things,» said the ex-convict.