KINGSTAN: More than 2,000 rounds of ammunition that were intended to be distributed in the criminal underworld are now in the safe hands of the police. This follows an intelligence-driven operation yesterday, which resulted in the arrest of four St Elizabeth men.
“A gun without ammunition is useless, so this is a significant dent to the criminal network,” commented Assistant Commissioner Ealan Powell, head of the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB), who believed the ammunition was part of the ongoing guns-for-drugs trade.
According to the police, 2,050 rounds of ammunition were found in one of two cars that were stopped and searched in the vicinity of the Grove Place main road in Manchester. The contraband included six hundred .45 rounds and one thousand, four hundred and fifty 9mm rounds with an estimated street value of just under $300,000.
“Every year we seize an average of 600 illegal guns, but not often we find this cache of ammunition. I cannot say much at the moment, because the investigation is still in progress; we intend to get to the source,” said Powell.
The flow of illegal guns and ammunition into the island has been a major headache for the police. This latest seizure has pushed the amount of ammunition seized since the start of the year to more than 3,270 rounds, while up to Monday, at least 108 illegal guns have been removed from the streets. According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Weekly Crime Review, of the 181 persons murdered up to Sunday, the gun was used in 95 of these killings.
