Po­lice of­fi­cers seized one Firearm User’s Li­cense, 27 as­sort­ed firearms and 800 rounds of as­sort­ed am­mu­ni­tion and ar­rest­ed two men dur­ing an in­tel­li­gence-led an­ti-crime op­er­a­tion con­duct­ed in the South­ern Di­vi­sion be­tween Fri­day (June 24) and Tues­day (June 28).

A state­ment from the TTPS said Dami­an Laing, a 43-year-old busi­ness­man of Ma­yaro and al­so of Block 2, Palmiste, San Fer­nan­do, was charged with trans­fer­ring firearm and am­mu­ni­tion. He was sched­uled to ap­pear at the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates’ Court yes­ter­day.

Mean­while, po­lice said Bri­an Lendor, a 26-year-old dri­ver of Ma­yaro, who was charged with pos­ses­sion of a firearm and am­mu­ni­tion and re­sist­ing ar­rest, al­so ap­peared at the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates’ Court yes­ter­day. Lendor plead­ed guilty to the charges, was de­nied bail and re­mains in cus­tody. The mat­ter was post­poned to Ju­ly 20, ac­cord­ing to the TTPS state­ment.

Po­lice said last Fri­day (June 24), the South­ern Di­vi­sion Op­er­a­tion and In­tel­li­gence Unit, along with mem­bers of the South­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force, pro­ceed­ed to a restau­rant lo­cat­ed at South Park, San Fer­nan­do, where they car­ried out ex­ten­sive sur­veil­lance on pa­trons at the said es­tab­lish­ment.

Po­lice said a male pa­tron was ar­rest­ed and sub­se­quent­ly charged with be­ing in pos­ses­sion of a Smith and Wes­son body­guard .380 pis­tol and sev­en rounds of .380 am­mu­ni­tion. The 26-year-old dri­ver is not the hold­er of a Firearm User’s Li­cense or a Firearm User’s (Em­ploy­ee Cer­tifi­cate). As a re­sult of that ar­rest, po­lice said a metic­u­lous and co­or­di­nat­ed in­ves­ti­ga­tion was led by In­sp Phillip and Sgt Wilkin­son of the South­ern Di­vi­sion Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tion De­part­ment (CID) in­to the own­er­ship of the firearm and am­mu­ni­tion.

This, po­lice said, re­sult­ed in the ar­rest of a sec­ond sus­pect, Dami­an Laing, who was sub­se­quent­ly charged by Sgt Wilkin­son for the of­fence of trans­fer­ring the said firearm and am­mu­ni­tion to Lendor, his dri­ver. Fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tions re­sult­ed in the FUL and quan­ti­ties of as­sort­ed firearms and as­sort­ed am­mu­ni­tion be­ing found and seized at the home of a rel­a­tive of one of the ac­cused.

The ex­er­cise was co­or­di­nat­ed by Snr Supt. Win­ches­ter, ASP Jaikaran and In­sp Phillip and su­per­vised by Sgt Williams and Sgt Wilkin­son and ex­e­cut­ed by of­fi­cers of the South­ern Di­vi­sion Op­er­a­tions and In­tel­li­gence Unit.