Pastor, 2 charged with misconduct in SSA probe

Charges have been laid against three former employees of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA).

Newsday understands Ian Albert Ezekiel Brown, pastor of the Jerusalem Bride Church and self-proclaimed spy; Sgt Sherwin Waldron, who was formerly assigned to the Special Operations Response Team (SORT); and former security supervisor of the SSA Portell Griffith were charged late on May 20.

Senior police sources confirmed the three were back in custody earlier in the evening after investigators met with Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC. They were charged with multiple counts of misbehaviour in public office related to the alleged transfer and possession of firearms and ammunition, just before 10 pm. Two of the three were processed at the Barataria police station.

This latest development comes 24 hours after the three, along with fired SSA director Major Roger Best were released from custody.

Best was fired on May 18 which was announced in a statement from the Ministry of National Security which said Minister Fitzgerald Hinds advised acting President Nigel de Freitas to terminate Best’s appointment as director of the elite agency with immediate effect.

Best remained in police custody after he was detained for questioning by police on May 16, but was released late Saturday night. Sources say investigators met with Gaspard, late Saturday, who ordered investigators to release all the suspects.

In early March, the Prime Minister, as head of the National Security Council, recalled retired Brig Gen Anthony Phillips-Spencer, Trinidad and Tobago’s ambassador to the US, to replace Best.

Dr Rowley announced Best’s suspension shortly after returning from a trip to Washington, DC, where he met with the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other top US intelligence officials. Rowley cited an impending threat to national security as the reason for the decision.

In mid-March, Brown was dismissed as a special reserve police officer by Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher.

Thursday’s arrests followed a two-and-a-half-month-long investigation into a wide range of allegations against SSA agents, a series of interviews, including one with former commissioner of police Gary Griffith.

Simultaneous searches were carried out at the homes of Best and the others shortly after. Warrants, signed off by a High Court master, allowed investigators to search for electronic devices for interrogation by the police cyber and social media unit of any communications data and stored data.

The four were questioned about the transfer of two Sig Sauer SMGX firearms, two Sig Sauer 516 rifles with optic and an assortment of ammunition from the TTPS to the SSA on May 17.

On May 18, more interviews were done.

On May 19, Rowley told reporters the scandal at the organisation had blindsided the government.

Speaking with the media at the Piarco International Airport after his return from a trip to Ghana and India, Rowley said the government, although “blindsided” by the developments at the agency, had acted quickly and decisively.

Rowley said little about what the ongoing audit into the agency has found, adding, “We expect that we will rectify it and return the agency to its purpose.”

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