POLICE yesterday locked down four illegal gas stations in Greenwich Town, Kingston 13, and Lyndhurst Crescent, arrested two people and detained another 20, including employees and customers who were purchasing petrol.

A number of drums containing gasoline and two petrol tankers were seized by the police in the raids on the stations operating from homes in Greenwich Town

The two charged with breaches of the Petroleum Act were Austin Mendez, 37, of 1 South Avenue, and Germaine Bryan, 32, of 33 West Avenue, both in Kingston 13.

Police said they are trying to find the mastermind behind the illegal operations.

The Operation Kingfish-led operation began at about 9:00 am yesterday when more than 100 police and soldiers, accompanied by analysts from the police forensic laboratory, raided premises at 1 Lyndhurst Crescent, Kingston 5 and seized a 5,000-gallon petrol tanker and five 45-gallon drums with petrol.

The operation then went to Greenwich Town where three gas stations operating in homes were raided. The first was 1 Seaview Avenue – a two-storey house with living quarters upstairs and a thriving petrol business on the ground floor.

Police said they found 120 45-gallon drums loaded with petrol stored in the yard, two kerosene oil tankers, one empty, 60 five-gallon empty buckets and 30 LPG cylinders.

“This is just like a mini Petrojam depot. It is dangerous to have this illegal petrol business in a home where people reside and it is also hazardous to the community because if someone drop a cigarette butt this entire community could be destroyed in a jiffy. This house is a fire hazard,” Kingfish communications officer Sergeant Steve Brown said.

Brown said 15 people were detained at 1 Seaview Avenue, including the proprietor, who said he was the holder of a licence to sell kerosene oil. A Leyland truck parked at the gate was loaded with empty 45- gallon drums.

At 46 7th Street, six 45-gallon drums were seized but Brown explained that the drums were removed from nearby 44 7th Street when word spread that the police were on an operation in Greenwich Town.

However, at 44 7th Street, while no one was found there, the police found an installed gas pump, two gas tankers and more than 30 45-gallon drums, some with petrol.

At another unlawful gas station at South Avenue where the police arrested Mendez and Bryan they found two 45-gallon drums with gasoline and 36 empty 45-gallon drums and other equipment, including funnels and plastic hoses for drawing petrol.

One of the detainees said the illegal petrol trade was profitable. “We sell a five-gallon bucket of gas for $700, and a five- gallon bucket of gas oil for $600, kerosene oil for $60 a quart, and we sell right through the night and day.”

As the security forces cordoned off areas in Greenwich Farm, neighbours of the illegally operated gas stations looked on in silence, oblivious of the impending danger they face daily.

“Kingfish is moving within the terms and conditions of the law, to close down every illegal gas station in this country because it is a criminal act and it is our duty to protect this country from every act of criminality…,” Brown said.