Seven Officers Arrested Over Missing Guns and Ammo at Port-of-Spain Police Station
Seven police officers of varying ranks have been arrested in connection with the disappearance of three Glock pistols and 45 rounds of ammunition from the Central Police Station in Port-of-Spain.
Seven Officers Held as Firearms Probe at Central Police Station Takes Sharp Turn
Seven police officers have been arrested in connection with the disappearance of three firearms and a quantity of ammunition from the Central Police Station on St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain, guardian.co.tt reports.
Senior police officials confirmed the development, stating that the officers — of varying ranks — were on shift the night the arms and ammunition went missing. As of late yesterday, they were still being questioned and no charges had been laid.
The missing items comprise three Glock pistols, three magazines and 45 rounds of 9mm ammunition. Municipal police officers attached to the Port-of-Spain Division lodged the weapons at the Central Police Station for safekeeping around 2.47 pm on August 10. A firearms check conducted around 3.40 am on August 11 found the items missing, prompting an immediate investigation.
Early in the probe, preliminary information suggested that an "administrative error" may have accounted for the weapons being unaccounted for. At a T&T Police Service media briefing on Wednesday, however, corporate communications manager Joanne Archie declined to elaborate, urging the public to allow the investigation to proceed without speculation.
"I do not have any update on that information and it may very well turn out to be administrative. However, I will let the investigative process take its course, and we will update the public as it progresses," Archie said.
Archie added that investigators would carefully examine when the firearms were brought to the station and who took possession of them after they were handed over.
Second major firearms incident in four months
The Port-of-Spain case comes roughly four months after the armoury at the San Fernando Municipal Police Station was discovered completely emptied of arms and ammunition. That vault was found on April 19 — the same day the body of Corporal Anuska Eversley was discovered at the station on King's Wharf, Lady Hailes Avenue.
An autopsy established that Eversley, 42, a mother of three, had been beaten and strangled. Municipal police constable Jivan "Bigs" Cooper, Eversley's colleague, along with construction worker Kwame Arnold, 20, and scrap iron dealer Nicholas "Nico" Ramdass, 24, both of Claxton Bay, have since been charged with her murder and a series of firearms trafficking offences linked to the stolen weapons and ammunition from that incident.
A TTPS audit to determine the full extent of the firearms and ammunition stolen in the San Fernando heist remains active.
Four of the municipal police officers suspended following the San Fernando incident have since returned to duty. A superintendent who was among those initially suspended, however, remains on suspension. Municipal Assistant Commissioner of Police Surendra Sagramsingh, who was sent on administrative leave when that probe began, also remains on leave.
In the wake of the San Fernando incident, municipal police officers were directed to lodge their firearms at police stations, with the T&T Municipal Police Service implementing stricter security measures to ensure greater accountability — measures that make the latest disappearance from a police station particularly significant.
Source: Google News TT — Port of Spain