POLICE yesterday shut down an illegal gas station at Riverton City in Kingston and arrested 14 men, including two tanker drivers who were said to be in the process of delivering petrol at the facility.

The two tankers, each loaded with 7,000 gallons of gasolene, were also seized in the operation, led by officers from the Kingfish task force, and assisted by soldiers from the Jamaica Defence Force. In addition, fifty-six 60-gallon drums with gasolene were seized by the cops.

“We have taken the operator of the premises as well as the two tanker drivers and other people who were on the location into custody,” said Inspector Steve Brown, the communications officer for Operation Kingfish. Brown said the names of the 14 would not be released until charges were laid against them.

According to the police, this was the first time that tanker drivers had been caught actually delivering gas to an illegal station.

“This illegal activity has been going on for a while but we have never been able to catch trucks off-loading gas,” Brown told the Observer.

The operation took place at about 1:30 when the officers swooped down on the makeshift gas station at Westbrook Avenue, close to the former Cremo ice-cream factory, as the tanker drivers were about to offload petrol, the police said.

Officers said the gas station was under police surveillance for some time and that the operation yesterday was well-timed.

“We followed the tanker from the refinery at Marcus Garvey Drive to the Riverton City premises and waited for the offloading to begin before making the move,” said Brown.

“They left the Petrojam refinery shortly after 1:00 pm and headed straight for the location,” he added.

Brown said that seals used on tankers were also found on the premises.

“We will be tracing those seals back to the trucks that came here through Petrojam.We will continue investigations to come up with the mastermind,” said the Kingfish spokesman.

While one of the tankers was clearly marked with the Petcom logo, Brown said that he was uncertain which marketing company the other truck belonged to.

In the meantime, Brown said allegations from bystanders that members of the constabulary were among people who purchased illegal gasolene at the Riverton premises would be investigated.