Three high-powered firearms recovered in St James
MONTEGO BAY, St James – Three high-powered firearms were among four illegal guns recovered during a joint police/military operation in one of the troubled St James inner city communities yesterday.
According to a police source during operations in the tough Glendevon community, the police recovered two AK47 rifles, one UZI sub-machine gun and a semi-automatic pistol.
From early yesterday morning the security forces commenced a massive operation in Glendevon and the neighbouring Norwood communities.
The police, during a press conference in Montego Bay on Wednesday, announced the intensification of the Get the Guns campaign, which is reported to have been yielded heavy success since being initiated a year ago.
Acting Commissioner of Police Warren Clarke, commander of Area 1, which encloses the parishes of Trelawny, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland, disclosed on Wednesday that since this year, of the 316 murders committed in Area 1, 237 were committed with the use of firearms.
Meantime, he noted that of the 200 murders in St James,184, or 92 per cent, “were occasioned with the use of guns”.
“Since the start of the year in Area 1 we have seized 148 firearms, 1,349 cartridges of ammunition; 88 of those firearms in St James alone accompanied by 810 cartridges of ammunition,” ACP Clarke disclosed.
He further noted that several wanted men, including three fingered in the recent spate of murders in St James, have been arrested this year.
Horace Hines