THE police have, up to mid-November, recovered 527 illegal weapons and 18,601 rounds of assorted ammunition.
The gun seizures represent a 13 per cent rise in the number of illegal firearms recovered over the same period last year, when the police took 460 illegal weapons off the streets.

The 527 illegal weapons include 239 pistols, 111 homemade guns, 109 revolvers, 24 rifles, 22 submachine guns and 22 shotguns.

This Uzi submachine gun was found by officers from the Special Anti-Crime Task Force in an abandoned building in the Southside community of Central Kingston yesterday morning. So far this year the police have recovered 527 illegal weapons. (Photo: Karl McLarty)

Eighty-seven of the guns and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition have been recovered in the St Andrew South Police Division, the highest number in a division.
"The large amount of guns that we have taken off the streets indicates that a lot more are out there and speaks to the high influx of weapons into the country," Crime Chief Lucius Thomas told the Observer yesterday.

Yesterday, members of the Special Anti-Crime Task Force, working under the auspices of Operation Kingfish, recovered what they said was a new .45 SA ACP model Uzi submachine gun, fitted with an extended butt and nozzle.

The weapon, which the police said originated from Action Arms Limited, an arms dealership based in the United States city of Pennsylvania, was found after police searched an abandoned building at the intersection of Water Lane and Gold Street in the Southside area of Central Kingston yesterday morning. No one was arrested in connection with the find.

The weapon was the fourth to be taken off the streets of the Corporate Area in two days. On Monday, police from the Hunts Bay station took in three guns - a .357 Magnum Python revolver with six rounds of ammunition, a homemade double-barrelled handgun and a 9mm pistol - in three separate incidents.

The police took into custody 17 year-old Fabian Findlay of 57 Waltham Park Road, also known as 'Mongoose Town', after he was held with the homemade gun; 32 year-old welder Robert Hayles who was held at his Willow Drive home with the Magnum revolver in his waistband, while a man, whose identity has not yet been released, was held in connection with the 9mm pistol.

According to Deputy Commissioner Thomas, illegal weapons were coming into the island via Haiti, South America and the United States. Fishing boats were also suspected of being one of the major carriers of guns into the island.

"We have identified certain cities in the United States from which guns are coming into the country," Thomas added. "The drug connection is also responsible for guns coming in from South America."

Last week, officers working under Operation Kingfish destroyed a number of acres of ganja as part of an operation to stem the flow of guns into Jamaica.

Assistant commissioner in charge of Operation Kingfish Glenmore Hinds said police intelligence indicated that guns were being traded for ganja by fishermen.

"Over the last several months we have seen an increase in the flow of guns from Haiti and our intelligence is indicating that this is being done by fishermen who take drugs, mainly ganja, and barter for small arms and submachine guns," Hinds told the Observer.

Meanwhile, Deputy Superintendent Cornwall "Bigga" Ford of the police Flying Squad pointed to at least two Central America countries from where illegal guns were being sent into the island.
"We need to check out Honduras and Nicaragua. See how the guns are loaded onto ships and shipped here," Ford said.

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