Trini criminals switching to military weapons —senior cop
(Trinidad Guardian) Criminals are shifting from the use of handguns to commit crimes to more sophisticated military-type rifles.
This from Assistant Commissioner of Police (Anti-Crime) Jayson Forde on Wednesday as he told a Parliament Joint Select Committee on National Security that police were seizing an average of 1,000 illegal firearms annually.
Forde admitted that the rate at which illegal firearms “appear on the streets is something to be concerned about.”
Vice chairman of the Committee Paul Richards told Forde the SSA’s 2016 data showed there were 8,154 illegal firearms in T&T and this figure may be a drop in the bucket. Many of those weapons came in through legal ports of entry, the SSA found.
Forde said the figures of firearms recovered have been far larger compared to previous years.
Of the 8,000 firearms, Richards said 169 were used in crimes.
“If I were to accept this in the context of the seizure rate it suggests that about 7,500 plus illegal firearms are just lurking around T&T and are awaiting unfortunate use. The seizure of 1,000 out of 8,000 does not give me a lot of comfort,” Richards said.
Richards said when he looked at the 2,000 criminal gangs operating in the country, each recruiting an average of 20 members, we were “grossly under-estimating the number of firearms in T&T. The numbers don’t seem to add up to me.”