RADHICA DE SILVA
radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
Criminals are using high-powered weapons, including AR15 variants which can fire between 35 to 50 rounds in a few seconds over a range of 600 yards, gun experts disclosed yesterday.
And while the police have retrieved about 44 high-powered firearms up to May this year, law enforcement experts say hundreds more of these weapons are coming into T&T from the United States via legitimate ports of entry.
Speaking to Guardian Media, security consultant and combat specialist Paul Daniel Nahous, who worked as a counter-terrorism instructor in Israel, said he was concerned that these weapons are in the hands of criminals.
“Weapons such as AR15 and other similar type rifles are concerning for law enforcement and military. This is not because it is more devastating or because you can empty a magazine of 35 to 50 round capabilities but also because of the range it can be engaged from,” Nahous said.
He added: “The effective combat range from a 5.56 cartridge or similar weapon is 300 yards or so, but the rounds go out to further and they are capable of inflicting damage at 600 yards.”
He noted that criminals do not have training concerning these weapons but said the public remains in danger once these weapons are on the streets.
Paul Nahous
COURTESY PAUL NAHOUS
“These criminals usually spray the rounds but these rounds can travel hundreds of yards and inadvertently hit someone else, so whenever there is a gang-related hit, it puts the rest of the population in grave danger, not to mention rival gangs are arming up as well, so this is of concern to law enforcement as well,” he said.
Meanwhile, firearm expert Major Dirk Barnes said many of these weapons are coming through legitimate ports of entry.
“The AR platform is modular and you can take different parts and assemble them. This is fashioned after the M-16 weapons and are the militarised version and those are what is being found in the hands of criminals. The variants of the AK47 fire a 7.56 round. I haven’t seen so many of those shell casings at crime scenes but it has been used in the past. However, the 5.56 rounds are the prevailing round for the AR-15 variants,” he said.
Barnes said there should be close monitoring of activities at the port.
“We have seen guns coming in containers and barrels. There are people in law enforcement who are involved in this. How can this be overlooked by Customs? It has to be that certain law enforcement officers are involved in these importations,” he said.
Meanwhile, former police commissioner Gary Griffith also agreed that high-tech weapons were coming mainly through the ports and not through porous borders as previously thought.
“The majority of these high-powered weapons come from the United States and they enter through legitimate ports of entry. This perception that the Coast Guard should be stopping boats because boatloads of guns are coming in with hundreds of guns is not true. Very few guns come from the mainland into Trinidad and the few that come through are old and outdated,” Griffith said.
Former police commissioner Gary Griffith.
ABRAHAM DIAZ
“The same way you have rogue elements in the Police Service, you have rogue elements who are in charge of the ports. I drafted the Border Protection Unit so we will have a combination of guards guarding the guards,” Griffith said.
He added that every year, several containers go missing and these could be filled with thousands of guns.
Up to May this year, acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob revealed that 44 high-powered weapons were seized along with 1,500 rounds of 5.56 ammunition, 387 rounds of 7.62 ammunition and almost 2,000 rounds of nine-millimetre ammunition.
