Of­fi­cers of the Na­tion­al Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Unit (NSOU) seized an il­le­gal firearm, am­mu­ni­tion and cannabis dur­ing a tar­get­ed op­er­a­tion in the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion be­tween 7:00 p.m. on Thurs­day and 3:00 a.m. on Fri­day.

The op­er­a­tion took place in the Las Lo­mas dis­trict and was led by ACP, Crim­i­nal Di­vi­sion Richard Smith and spear­head­ed by ASP St. Clair.

Based on in­tel­li­gence re­gard­ing the pres­ence of il­le­gal firearms and am­mu­ni­tion, NSOU of­fi­cers in­ter­cept­ed a white Nis­san AD Wag­on along Ca­roni South Bank Road, St. He­le­na. 

The ve­hi­cle was dri­ven by a 27-year-old labour­er from El Car­men Vil­lage, St. He­le­na, with a 19-year-old un­em­ployed Span­ish na­tion­al re­sid­ing at Ross Trace, St. He­le­na as a pas­sen­ger.

Dur­ing a search of the dri­ver’s res­i­dence un­der Sec­tion 12 of the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, of­fi­cers found one black Fuerzas Ar­madas de Venezuela pis­tol, two loaded mag­a­zines con­tain­ing a to­tal of 22 rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion, and 1.5 kilo­grams of cannabis, es­ti­mat­ed to have a street val­ue of TT$30,000. 

The dri­ver was ar­rest­ed at the scene.

The pas­sen­ger’s res­i­dence was al­so searched un­der the same reg­u­la­tions, but no il­le­gal items were found. 

He was de­tained pend­ing fur­ther en­quiries.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are be­ing led by PC Ju­man of the Na­tion­al Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Unit. 

Both in­di­vid­u­als are cur­rent­ly in cus­tody at the Arou­ca and Freeport Po­lice Sta­tions, re­spec­tive­ly.