Derek Achong
Police are investigating two murders in Blanchisseuse and Biche. The killings took place between Saturday and early yesterday.
According to reports, a resident contacted police on Saturday afternoon after detecting a decomposing smell in the area.
Officers of the Northern Division and Homicide Bureau of Investigations visited the area and found the semi-decomposing body of a man over a precipice, near to a christophine field.
The body was removed with the assistance of Defence Force personnel.
Although the man, who was later identified as Barry Boxhill, of Bon Air Gardens in Arouca, appeared to have a gunshot wound to the head, investigators said they would await an autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre in St James before concluding his cause of death.
Shortly after midday, police responded to a shooting in Biche in which Sherma Francis was wounded.
Francis was taken for medical treatment but was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
The exact circumstances of Francis' shooting were unclear up to late yesterday.
The two murders raised the murder toll for the year to 263.
Six held after guns, ammo seized
Central Division Police arrested six men in two major firearms and ammunition seizures in the district over the weekend.
The exercises, conducted by the Central Division Task Force led by Senior Supt Curtis Simon and Supt Wayne Mystar, began between 4.30 am and 8.30 am on Saturday as a team of officers executed a search warrant at a house at Tortuga Village.
During the search, the officers reportedly found a revolver, a pump-action shotgun, two home-made shotguns, a shotgun barrel, a modified nail gun, 479 rounds of ammunition for the nail gun, 140 rounds of assorted ammunition, and 75 12-gauge shotgun cartridges.
The officers also said they seized 17 spent casing and cartridges as they arrested the 32-year-old owner of the property.
Around 2.30 pm officers executed a search at two rooms at a guest house along the Southern Main Road in Cunupia.
In one room, the officers found two men with a loaded Taurus pistol and in the other, they found three men with a loaded AR-15 assault rifle.
They also found a bullet-proof vest, cellphones, and knives.
The illegal firearms and components are expected to be taken to the Forensic Science Centre in St James for ballistic testing once the men make their virtual court appearances before magistrates, later this week.