Supreme Court freezes Warner assets in quarry probe – Trinidad Tribune

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One of the excavators seized by police during a raid on an illegal quarry Five Acres, Vega de Oropouche, Sangre Grande on December 2, 2023. – Photo courtesy of TTPS

A criminal investigation into allegations of illegal extraction and processing of aggregate without a mining permit has taken a dramatic turn as police obtained an order freezing the assets of two Warner Group companies under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Senior police officials familiar with the matter said the ex parte orders were issued on August 21 by a High Court Criminal Division judge and later served on Warns Quarry Co Ltd and Pres-T-Con 2021 Ltd.

On August 21, five Warner Group companies and 12 people, including founder Allan Warner, a close friend of the prime minister, tried unsuccessfully to get a civil judge to order police to vacate a rubble washing plant on Moonan Road, just off Agua Santa Road, Wallerfield. The plant is owned by the Warner Group and the company is seeking access to heavy machinery seized during an investigation into illegal mining.

In his ruling, Judge Frank Seepersad said he would give police “reasonable time” to complete their investigation and denied the request for a court order.

Agents from the Financial Investigations Branch, Multi-Agency Task Force (MATF), are working with Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Joan Honore-Paul in one of the most extensive investigations into illegal quarrying in recent history.

Allan Warner, founder of the Warner Group of Companies. –

According to legal sources, a restraining order is a preventive measure used by investigating authorities to support a forfeiture order. Restraining orders, granted under the Proceeds of Crime Act, give an investigator or prosecuting authority the right to seize the assets of someone suspected of being under investigation, even before the person has been charged.

Such an order prohibits the person concerned from dealing with the goods in question. This order also applies to third parties who have goods in their possession in which a suspect or accused person is deemed to have an interest.

The Warners argued in their constitutional motion that the police actions also deprived them of their constitutional right to enjoy their property, and while they recognize that the police service has a responsibility to investigate crime, it cannot justify the “inordinate delay in its investigations.”

They allege malice in the police investigation and claim that senior police officials made “flagrant and outrageous statements” that “they will paralyze all our operations.”

The lawsuit states that two of Warner’s companies – Warner Construction and Sanitation Co Ltd and Pres-T-Con 2021 Ltd – “are involved in various government contracts for the provision of construction services.”

The merits of these claims will be assessed when the constitutional motion is heard by the Supreme Court.

A senior official familiar with Warner’s investigation said the use of the Proceeds of Crime Act to track the money goes beyond arresting truck drivers and excavator operators who are typically caught red-handed in illegal quarry raids.

Police: Illegal quarries linked to violent crime

Acting ACP Curt Simon, head of the White-Collar Crime Division, said in an interview with Newsday on August 24, without commenting on specific developments in the Warner investigation: “Those involved in illegal quarrying, be warned: the TTPS is not going to sit idly by and allow such activities to proceed without investigation. There are tools in the criminal law that we are going to use.”

Simon said the illegal quarrying industry was a “lucrative industry” and that police had found “links to serious labour crime”. He said that while the offence was a drain on the public purse, it was also a drain on the safety and security of communities.

He said police have observed a trend of violent crime linked to illegal quarries and “links between illegal quarries and criminal gangs”, which by their nature and characteristics involve a certain level of violence.

“We are concerned not only about the financial loss to the state, but also about the damage, injuries and deaths it causes,” he said.

According to the Eastern Division police, there have been more than 20 murders related to illegal quarries in the area from Valencia to Matura in recent years.

“Our mandate is to provide safety and security for everyone,” Simon said, adding that police “will not give up that mandate.”

On the issue of complicit law enforcement officers being paid to turn a blind eye to illegal quarrying, Simon said that in any case where police “expose and establish guilt, wherever that may be, they will feel the full burden of the law.”

Warner Company Gets New Mining License

While Warner was in court facing criminal charges, on June 18 the Department of Energy and Energy Industries granted his other son, Keon Warner, and Warns Quarry a temporary mining permit – a processing permit to extract material from 16.66 hectares of state land at Moonan Road, Agua Santa, Wallerfield.

The application for the permit was made on June 5, more than a month after police halted mining.

See also

Police officers during an operation at the Moonan Road, Wallerfield aggregates processing plant, owned by the Warner Group of Companies, on July 31. – Photo by Roger Jacob

According to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, the conditional permission was granted because: “Given the importance and critical role played by Warns Quarry Co Ltd in relation to the supply of sand and gravel aggregates for highway construction and for the local market, you are conditionally authorised to carry out mineral processing activities, pending the processing of your application for a processing licence. This permission is valid until 31 December 2025.”

On May 20, State Lands Commissioner Paula Drakes granted Warns Quarry permission to occupy the Wallerfield site and carry out industrial operations. The agreement was signed by Allan Warner and Keon Warner, both directors of the company.

Charges in the case

Warner, 74, of Tower 2, Tragarete Road, Woodbrook, One Woodbrook Place, was charged on July 2 with processing aggregates without a permit.

On July 4, Warner was identified as the owner of an aggregate mining plant in Moonan Road, Wallerfield, before being formally charged with the summary offence of section 45(1)(a) of the Minerals Act. The offence is punishable by a $500,000 fine and five years’ imprisonment.

In May, police assigned to the MATF shut down a multimillion-dollar aggregate processing plant with some of the latest modern machinery, including two multimillion-dollar excavators, at a Warner wash plant. Police have been stationed at the wash plant since the May 2 raid.

Warner’s son Aluko Ato Warner, also of One Woodbrook Place; Robert Wilson of Todds Road; Reuben Maprangala of Champs Fleurs; Ricky Joseph of New Grant; Corey Charles of Diego Martin; Deon George of Laventille; Shastri Mahadeo of Chaguanas; and Kimal Williams of Sea Lots were jointly charged by Cpl Terrence Nowbutt of the MATF with processing minerals without a permit.

Five months earlier, police had raided a quarry in an area called Five Acres, Vega de Oropouche, Sangre Grande, after receiving complaints of armed men threatening Forestry Department employees on state land. Four people were arrested for illegally digging and removing aggregates from state land.

During the operation, a 40-ton excavator and a 20-ton excavator, worth millions of dollars, were seized and taken to Camp Cumuto for safekeeping.

According to police, the aggregate from the Sangre Grande quarry was processed at the Wallerfield wash facility and then sold to the state.

Pres-T-Con 2021 has a sublease agreement with Moonan for the use of ten hectares of the plot where the washing facility is located.