A 19-year-old Va­len­cia man was ar­rest­ed af­ter po­lice seized a 9mm pis­tol loaded with sev­en rounds of am­mu­ni­tion dur­ing a road check op­er­a­tion on Tues­day night.

The op­er­a­tion was con­duct­ed by of­fi­cers of the East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force be­tween 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. as part of pa­trols and road checks through­out the Va­len­cia dis­trict.

Po­lice said of­fi­cers con­duct­ed mo­bile pa­trols and checks at sev­er­al lo­ca­tions, in­clud­ing Va­len­cia Old Road, Plan­ta­tion Road, Palm Road, San Pe­dro, Emon Lane, Ben­ny Road and Clarence Trace.

Dur­ing a mo­bile pa­trol along San Pablo Road Ex­ten­sion, of­fi­cers re­port­ed­ly ob­served the teenag­er, of Mar­cus Av­enue, Va­len­cia, walk­ing north along a track.

Po­lice said the man, who was dressed in a black hood­ie, was act­ing sus­pi­cious­ly.

The of­fi­cers in­struct­ed him to stop, but ac­cord­ing to po­lice, he in­stead ran along the track.

A chase fol­lowed, and the teenag­er was ap­pre­hend­ed a short dis­tance away.

Po­lice said a search of the man was con­duct­ed and a 9mm pis­tol, loaded with sev­en rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion, was found in his pos­ses­sion.

He was ar­rest­ed and tak­en to the San­gre Grande Po­lice Sta­tion along with the firearm and am­mu­ni­tion.

PC Mo­hammed is con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the mat­ter.

The op­er­a­tion was co­or­di­nat­ed by Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Et­ti­enne, As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent Rus­sel and Act­ing In­spec­tor Harp­er, and su­per­vised by Act­ing Sergeant Ram­per­sad.

Mem­bers of the East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the op­er­a­tion in­clud­ed PCs Di­az, Mo­hammed, Pem­ber­ton and Cortez.