By Richard Charan from Trinidad Express

The Police Service confirmed late on Tuesday that a plant-like substance resembling marijuana was found on the Prime Minister’s private residence at Phillipine two years ago. As a result, a criminal investigation has been launched.

However, the police said the amount of marijuana weighed five grammes, and was not found on a window sill of Persad-Bissessar’s house but in a washroom gazebo located on Persad-Bissessar’s sprawling property.

The police press statement came hours after fraud-accused Jack Warner, who first made the claim of ganja being found at the PM’s house, held a press conference to defend his claims, insisting that Persad-Bissessar was out of the country at the time of the discovery and wanted to resign when told of the discovery.

On Monday, Acting Commissioner Stephen Williams, speaking with reporters in Tobago, said there was no station diary report on any marijuana find, and that he was not informed of any such discovery back in April 2013.

However, in a 6p.m. press release, Acting Commissioner Williams said he had since received a report from head of the special branch in which the marijuana claim was verified.

Press Release issued by the TTPS

The following is the statement issued by the police service –

“In light of an article in the Sunday Express Newspaper dated June 14th, 2015, which alleged the discovery of marijuana at the private residence of the Prime Minister in South Trinidad, the following actions were taken by the Commissioner of Police:

A report was requested from the Operational Head of Special Branch, Snr. Supt. Gary Gould

Snr. Supt.CID/CRO, McDonald Jacob, was requested to verify the existence of any official police record in relation to the allegation

The Commissioner of Police was advised by Snr. Supt. Jacob on Monday 15th June, 2015, of the absence of any official police record of the alleged discovery.

However, today Tuesday 16th June, 2015, the Commissioner of Police was presented with a signed report from Snr. Supt. Gould which confirmed the discovery of 5 (five) grammes of a ‘plant like material’ resembling that of marijuana, contained in a plastic bag in the male washroom of a Gazebo, on the western end of the Prime Minister’s private residence at Philippines.

The report, which was submitted to the Commissioner of Police at 2:00pm, stated that the discovery was made on Friday 19th April, 2013, at around 8:50am by a member of Special Branch.

Given the report now made available to him, the Commissioner of Police has ordered an investigation into the matter.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Ag.), Ainsley Garrick, has been appointed to conduct the investigation”.

For more on this story and audio go to: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20150616/news/cops-confirm-ganja-found-on-pms-property-probe-launched