Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has an­nounced a new ini­tia­tive in which the Gov­ern­ment is pre­pared to pay cit­i­zens who pro­vide in­for­ma­tion which leads to the seizure and con­vic­tion of firearm of­fend­ers.

Young said the Gov­ern­ment will fund the pay­ment to tip­sters through the Crime Stop­pers pro­gramme.

He was speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence at the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in Port-of-Spain on Sun­day af­ter­noon.

De­scrib­ing the re­cent up­surge in mur­ders as “un­ac­cept­able” Young said all but one of the over 24 mur­ders in the last week were com­mit­ted with il­le­gal firearms.

“We are launch­ing an ini­tia­tive but we re­quire as­sis­tance from cit­i­zens, we will be of­fer­ing re­wards for in­for­ma­tion that lead us to lo­cate caches, stash­es, from one up­wards, if we suc­cess­ful­ly search and re­cov­er il­le­gal firearms, we are pre­pared to of­fer re­wards for that,” Young said.

He said the de­tails of the ini­tia­tive will be an­nounced in the next “few days.”

Young al­so said Cab­i­net ap­proved $2.8 M for an im­proved radar for the Coast Guard to lock down the bor­ders to stop the flow of il­le­gal firearms in­to the coun­try.