Detective Sergeant Richard Hilton displays a .62 calibre rifle equipped with a telescope to journalists at the head office of the Major Investigation Task Force on Harbour Street, downtown Kingston, while his colleague, Detective Sergeant Barrington Crawford (background), looks on. The gun was one of five seized by the police yesterday in an operation at a warehouse in Kingston.- Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
Five more high-powered rifles are now off the streets after a police operation uncovered the deadly weapons at Universal Freight Handlers Warehouse on Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston, yesterday.
A male who went to pick up the container was also detained and is now being interrogated by the police. He is expected to be charged.
Police personnel attached to Operation Kingfish, the Major Investigation Task Force and other agencies went to the warehouse about 12:00 p.m. yesterday, where they targeted a refrigerator.
Inside the door of the refrigerator the police found two shotguns, an AK-47 assault rifle, a 9mm submachine gun and a .62 calibre rifle equipped with a telescope.
Guns from us port
Information reaching The Gleaner is that the guns came from a port in the United States and were to be received by a prominent Corporate Area gang.
Inspector Steve Brown, spokesman for Operation Kingfish, said the find resulted from the agency's strategy to rid the streets of weapons.
"We are on a drive to get the guns, and we started our drive in recent times and we have been reaping some success. We have noticed in recent times that probably the people who are bringing in the guns are targeting the various warehouses and the wharves."
Inspector Brown said that the organisation would be going after the wharves and warehouses.
"While we know that a lot of guns are coming into the island from Haiti and other Central American and Caribbean countries, we do know that a vast number of guns we have in Jamaica come through the wharves, and against that background, we have been intensifying our efforts around the wharves and various warehouses in an effort to capture and seize the illegal guns."
