Derek Achong

A sub­ma­chine gun, po­lice and army uni­forms and a large quan­ti­ty of mar­i­jua­na were seized by po­lice in Barataria yes­ter­day. The ex­er­cise which was car­ried out by mem­bers of the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force (NEDTF), be­gan at 4 am and end­ed six hours lat­er. It was in re­sponse to an in­crease in vi­o­lent crimes in the area, in­clud­ing sev­er­al mur­ders over the past six weeks.

While search­ing a house on Saw Mill Av­enue, Barataria, po­lice re­cov­ered a Tech-9 sub­ma­chine gun, along with 74 rounds of as­sort­ed am­mu­ni­tion. Po­lice said some of the am­mu­ni­tion could be used in high-pow­ered as­sault ri­fles. The haul in­clud­ed 28 rounds of 7.62 mm, 17 rounds of 5.56 mm and 16 rounds of 9 mm am­mu­ni­tion. They al­so re­cov­ered sev­er­al pieces of army cam­ou­flage uni­forms as well as a po­lice op­er­a­tional jack­et.

While search­ing an­oth­er house on the street, po­lice found 3.4 ki­los of high-grade mar­i­jua­na with a street val­ue of more than $50,000. Eight res­i­dents were ar­rest­ed and were be­ing in­ter­ro­gat­ed by de­tec­tives at the Mor­vant Po­lice Sta­tion up to late yes­ter­day. They are ex­pect­ed to be charged with drug and firearm pos­ses­sion this week­end. Sgt Cor­nelius Samuel and Cpl Sunil Bharath are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.