THE police say they have seized a total of 50 guns over the past month under its new anti-crime initiative, Operation resilience.

“The seizure is the largest made in the island (in a single month) over the last three years,” head of the Mobile Reserve, Assistant Commissioner of Police Winchroy Budhoo, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“Based on tests, the police have found weapons that were used to commit as many as 30 murders,” he further said of the iniative which was launched recently in response to the continued bloodshed in West Kingston.

Additionally, he said that more than 100 people have been arrested under the initiative, while another 600 were held, processed and released.

The latest gun find occurred yesterday, where four weapons, including an M16 rifle, were retrieved during operations in August, St Andrew, and Spanish Town in St Catherine.

The police said that the powerful M 16 rifle, along with a handgun, was found during a search in the volatile March Pen Road community in the old capital, while a .45 and a 9mm gun were seized in Bedward Gardens in August Town.

A total of 30 people, meanwhile, were held for questioning during the operations which saw more than 200 members of the island security forces flooding both communities.

The police have planned to intensify their operation.

“We will not stop our search for the criminals,” Budhoo warned, as he called on Jamaicans to support the police.

He also said that the police would be keeping a close watch on areas such as Mountain View, which remanned tense yesterday as a result of a police killing on Monday.

The police reported yesterday that they came under sustained gun fire in the area yesterday from criminals using the hilly terrain to their advantage to carry out the calculated attacks.

The police said there will also be a focus on Waterhouse and sections of St James, where a police officer was shot and injured during an operation yesterday.