By Richard Charan

Police and forensic officers yesterday donned masks and gloves before taking possession of bottles of chemicals and substances found at a Debe chemical storage facility. The lab and facilities, owned by Veji Boodoo of Petroleum Laboratories (Petro Lab) Ltd, came into focus during an Express investigation into a terrorism threat made by a group of Muslim radicals.

Two chemical experts from the Forensic Science Centre were brought in by Special Branch officers. The two journalists who broke the story of the terror threat, Darryl Heeralal and photographer Johann Joseph, were questioned at the scene yesterday.

The experts described some of the chemicals found in barrels at the site as “dangerous and deadly” but could not yet identify other substances which were taken away for testing.

In response to yesterday’s Express report about the possible discovery of the location of the laboratory, officers from Special Branch and San Fernando CID who had visited the site a week ago, returned to cordon off the Debe chemical facility around 10.35 a.m. yesterday.

Half an hour later ASP Errol Denoon, who is heading the terror threat investigation on the instruction of Police Commissioner Hilton Guy, arrived with the forensic officers.

They were met by Heeralal and Joseph, who were questioned about why they suspected the location might be the one to which they had been taken, and how they had been able to trace their way back to the facility.

Heeralal said he went to the location after reading a report in last weekend’s Sunday Mirror in which Boodoo told reporter David Millette that the lab could be his. Boodoo was also quoted as saying that he had been questioned by Special Branch officers who had searched his lab at Cuchawan Trace, Debe as well as his office at Gasparillo.

ASP Denoon said officers needed no search warrant to seize and remove the bottles because “we have not gone on the compound but in an open, unfenced piece of land”.

Using “pH indicator paper” the forensic officers tested barrels labelled Sulphuric Acid before informing investigators that the contents were “very acidic” and could be a concentrated brew, or a mixture of chemicals.

The experts also noted the newness of sprouting grass on the burnt land and concluded that a fire could indeed have swept the area around the time that neighbouring resident, Birbal Lodie said he saw a bush fire, shortly after a man left the chemical compound two Sundays ago.

The fire took place on the same day that the terror threat story broke in the Sunday Express two weeks ago.

During the search for evidence, Special branch officers, all masked against the chemical odours, surrounded the facility.

After about one hour, forensic officers left with bags and boxes containing the bottles and samples which will take between two and three weeks to analyse.

In the Sunday Express story, the two journalists had recounted how they had been blindfolded and taken to a secret lab location where, after their blindfolds were removed, they saw bottles containing liquids and granules, powders and a wax-like substance.

A gas mask-wearing man who described himself as a chemical engineer who had been trained abroad in the manufacture of explosives, described how each substance could be used to create explosives.

Masked members of the group claimed they were using the chemicals to make poisons and explosives to attack British and American interests in Trinidad and Tobago if the US and Britain attacked Iraq.

Meanwhile, Boodoo, who left for Grenada last week Wednesday and was due back yesterday, had not returned up to late evening.

Reports of Boodoo’s meeting with Special Branch officers first surfaced in last week’s Sunday Mirror newspaper.

Using the address provided in the report, an Express team visited the Debe storage facility. In a burnt-out area at the side of a sealed concrete and steel reinforced building there were found bottles piled against a wall and scattered between blackened tree stumps.

More bottles containing granules were found at the back of the building.

ASP Denoon said last night that investigators now wanted to search inside the buildings “but if we want to do that, we have to find (Veji) Boodoo. But we understand he is still out of the country”.

Denoon said other chemical laboratories were still being searched “but we want to bring this to a close soon”.

An initial report on the investigation was handed over to Commissioner Guy on Monday.