An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

A for­mer na­tion­al foot­baller was ar­rest­ed on Old Year’s night af­ter of­fi­cers dis­cov­ered a cache of guns and am­mu­ni­tion, along with a quan­ti­ty of cash at his home in Pe­tit Val­ley.

The haul was found as of­fi­cers ex­er­cised their rights un­der the ex­pand­ed pow­ers of the cur­rent State of Emer­gency (SoE) to en­ter and search premis­es based on sus­pi­cion and in­tel­li­gence.

In the ex­er­cise, which was sanc­tioned by Snr Supt Williams and co­or­di­nat­ed by ASP Lynch, of­fi­cers of the West­ern Di­vi­sion Gang and In­tel­li­gence Unit and the Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment car­ried out search­es at 5.30 pm and 9.30 pm on Old Year’s Day.

Up­on en­ter­ing the 55-year-old sus­pect’s house at Pi­o­neer Dri­ve, Pe­tit Val­ley, of­fi­cers be­gan search­ing for il­le­gal arms and am­mu­ni­tion and found the cache of weapons hid­den in a bed­room.

Among the items seized were an AR-15 ri­fle; two CZ pis­tols; one Glock pis­tol; and one Smith and Wes­son pis­tol; along with an as­sort­ment of 5.56mm, 9mm, .38mm, and .40mm am­mu­ni­tion. Along with the guns and am­mu­ni­tion, of­fi­cers al­so re­cov­ered US$25,000 and TT$139,865.

The mon­ey was lat­er hand­ed over to of­fi­cials of the Fi­nan­cial In­tel­li­gence Bu­reau as the in­ves­ti­ga­tion con­tin­ues.

The sus­pect, who has the alias of a pop­u­lar com­ic book char­ac­ter, re­mained in po­lice cus­tody up to yes­ter­day and was said to be co­op­er­at­ing with the au­thor­i­ties.

In a sep­a­rate ex­er­cise in the North East­ern Di­vi­sion yes­ter­day morn­ing, of­fi­cers seized a gun af­ter stop­ping and search­ing a car with three men in Mor­vant.

Dur­ing the ef­fort, which was co­or­di­nat­ed by Snr Supt Mervyn Ed­wards, of­fi­cers found a gun fit­ted with one mag­a­zine and 23 rounds of 5.56mm am­mu­ni­tion.