THE scale of the threat to human life here was amplified with the seizure of a multi-calibre Omni Hybrid rifle by law enforcers last month after their stand-off with a gunman in Manchester.

That weapon — we were told by Acting Senior Superintendent of Police Patrae Rowe, who is director of the Firearms and Narcotics Investigation Division (FNID) — can discharge both 5.56 and .223 rounds, which makes it especially lethal.

Mr Rowe also revealed that the seizure in Manchester was not the first of that type of rifle in the country. A number of them, he said, have been seized this year by the police who, most commendably, have been dismantling criminal enterprises, piece by piece, in recent times.

That resolve to take back our country from those who prey on society is welcomed by all law-abiding Jamaicans. We urge the security forces not to relent, and in doing so to increase their focus on the facilitators of crime — the people who fund the acquisition of these weapons that are coming into the country.

Those individuals are not people of straw for, as we all know, the quality of the illegally imported arms and ammunition being seized by the security forces is not cheap.

Acting Senior Superintendent Rowe gave us a breakdown of some of the prices:

“A handgun is being sold for an average $300,000 and can go up to $700,000, and a rifle is being sold for upwards of $1 million,” he said.

That kind of money is not easily available to the petty, gun-toting criminal, neither is the volume of ganja being used in the guns-for-drugs trade, which Acting Senior Superintendent Rowe spoke to in his interview with this newspaper last month.

“Fifty pounds of ganja,” he related, “is traded for one handgun, and 100 pounds of ganja is traded for one rifle.”

Up to the time he spoke to us, the police, he said, had potentially disrupted the trade of 1,175 handguns or 588 rifles with the FNID’s seizure of 58,799.3 pounds of ganja since the start of this year, which represents 95 per cent of the total seizure by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). The confiscated ganja, he added, had an estimated value of more than $176 million.

Additionally, Mr Rowe said, the FNID has seized an estimated $411 million worth of cocaine so far this year.

“The FNID has seized over half a billion Jamaican dollars in drugs since 2025, and has significantly disrupted the drug trade with a net effect of disruption in the firearms trade,” Mr Rowe told us.

Those are not small achievements, and the police are to be commended for their effort.

The Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act provides heavy sanctions for people convicted of illegally trading in, possessing, or using guns. We acknowledge that there are some individuals who will not be deterred by those sanctions. They may believe that they are untouchable, but we get a sense from the JCF of today that it is determined to extinguish the fires of lawlessness.

To that we say, Bravo! Apprehend and successfully prosecute those who fund criminality, seize their assets, sever their networks, and smash their operations into dust.

Cutting the head off the serpent of crime will redound to the benefit of our people and our country.