An an­ti-crime op­er­a­tion in the Cou­va and Freeport ar­eas on No­vem­ber 14 led to the seizure of firearms, cannabis, and the ar­rest of four men.

Of­fi­cers of the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Task Force (CDTF) tar­get­ed known drug hotspots be­tween 3 pm and 8 pm. Act­ing on in­tel­li­gence, they searched an aban­doned apart­ment build­ing on Or­ange Field Road, Cara­pichaima. In­side, of­fi­cers found 77 ful­ly grown cannabis plants val­ued at $235,000, along with grow lights and chem­i­cals used for cul­ti­va­tion.

The team then moved to a sus­pect­ed drug hotspot at First Street, Pranz Gar­dens, Clax­ton Bay. They spot­ted a group of men out­side an aban­doned build­ing. When of­fi­cers ap­proached, the men tried to es­cape but were quick­ly caught af­ter a brief chase.

A search of the area un­cov­ered three firearms:

Two AR-15-style ri­fles, each with a mag­a­zine con­tain­ing 30 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion

A Sig Sauer P250 pis­tol, loaded with 11 rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion

Po­lice ar­rest­ed a 25-year-old man from Soogrim Trace, Or­ange Val­ley; an­oth­er 25-year-old from Junon Street Ex­ten­sion, Cal­i­for­nia; and two 33-year-old men from Clax­ton Bay and Dow Vil­lage, Cal­i­for­nia.

The sus­pects and seized items were tak­en to the Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion. In­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing.