Twelve peo­ple have been ar­rest­ed dur­ing an­ti-crime ex­er­cis­es in the South­ern and Cen­tral polic­ing di­vi­sions, the Po­lice Ser­vice is re­port­ing.

The TTPS says in Freeport an ex­er­cise be­gan on Fri­day (March 10) con­cen­trat­ed on drug blocks, and per­sons of in­ter­est in Mis­sion Road and Are­na Road, Freeport .

It says sev­er­al search­es were con­duct­ed and search war­rants ex­e­cut­ed.

The TTPS says in­for­ma­tion led po­lice of­fi­cers to a busy area off Par­ba­tia Trace in Chase Vil­lage, where a search was con­duct­ed.  Dur­ing the search, the of­fi­cers seized a plas­tic bag con­tain­ing a com­po­nent of a firearm that can al­ter a pis­tol in­to a ful­ly au­to­mat­ic ma­chine gun.

The of­fi­cers al­so seized a quan­ti­ty of mar­i­jua­na.

Ac­cord­ing to the TTPS, as the ex­er­cise con­tin­ued, the search­es were ex­tend­ed to oth­er ar­eas of the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion.

Dur­ing a search in Cara­pichaima, one ri­fle mag­a­zine along with fif­teen rounds of am­mu­ni­tion were found un­der the de­bris of a stair­case in an aban­doned build­ing. The items were seized.

One of the of­fi­cers had cause to stop and search a 20-year-old man, and dur­ing the search, a quan­ti­ty of co­caine was re­port­ed­ly found hid­den in his pock­et.

Two men al­so were ar­rest­ed; they are both the sub­ject of on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Mean­while in the South­ern Di­vi­sion, nine peo­ple were ar­rest­ed on var­i­ous charges re­lat­ed to drug and firearm pos­ses­sions.

The TTPS says the sus­pects range in age from 19 to 42 years.