A to­tal of 21 peo­ple were ar­rest­ed on Thurs­day in the north­ern and south­ern di­vi­sions, dur­ing on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE) op­er­a­tions.

Among them were 11 sus­pects, whose ages ranged be­tween 19 to 44, who were held for gang-re­lat­ed of­fences.

The in­tel­li­gence-led ex­er­cise was con­duct­ed be­tween 3 pm and 7 pm on Thurs­day in Ari­ma, Waller­field, Gua­napo and Mal­abar by of­fi­cers of the Ari­ma Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment, Guard and Emer­gency Branch, and the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice.

Five ad­di­tion­al sus­pects were ar­rest­ed for pos­ses­sion of firearm and am­mu­ni­tion; and pos­ses­sion of co­caine for traf­fick­ing. They were held with a re­volver con­tain­ing six rounds of am­mu­ni­tion; and a pis­tol with a mag­a­zine and 16 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion.

Two sus­pects, aged 41 and 39, were held for as­sault oc­ca­sion­ing ac­tu­al bod­i­ly harm, while two oth­ers were held for out­stand­ing en­quiries re­lat­ing to store break­ing and lar­ce­ny.

A 19-year-old man was al­so ar­rest­ed in Princes Town for pos­ses­sion of a home­made shot­gun, which was found in an aban­doned struc­ture close to his New Grant home.