A female is among 16 people taken into custody in connection with the seizure of five firearms — four M-16 rifles among them — and a number of assorted rounds of ammunition in the community of Flanker, St James, during a joint police/military operation yesterday.
“We seized four M-16 rifles and a pistol and assortment of rounds, plus magazines…” head of operations in the St James Police Division, Deputy Superintendent Gary McKenzie disclosed.
In addition to the illegal guns, lottery scamming paraphernalia, including lead sheets, were also seized.
According to DSP McKenzie, there has been a recent flare-up of violence in the tough, inner-city community.
As a result, members of the security forces went in search of wanted men, gangsters, illegal firearms, and other contraband.
“The operation commenced around 4:00 am this morning (yesterday). We went into the Flanker community where we have been having some problems there since the other day, so we sought to be proactive in terms of impacting persons who are hell-bent on committing mayhem against each other,” DSP McKenzie revealed. “We knew that there would have been guns and ammunition in the area as well as violence producers. We also went in there to see if we could capture wanted men.”
The senior cop said over the next few days, the police will intensify its operations in the community.
“We believe that the citizens in Flanker deserve better, they deserve peace and harmony, and we know that there are criminal gangs in the area that are wreaking havoc — we want to stamp [them] out,” DSP McKenzie said.
Since the start of the year, 115 illegal guns have been taken off the streets of St James by the security forces.
Five of these weapons were seized in Mount Salem since the declaration of that community as a zone of special operations.