Penal man held with Glock-type firearm

A 33-year-old Pe­nal man was ar­rest­ed af­ter po­lice found a Glock-type pro­hib­it­ed firearm and am­mu­ni­tion dur­ing an an­ti-crime ex­er­cise at a birth­day par­ty in Pe­nal.

Po­lice said of­fi­cers from the South West­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force act­ed on in­for­ma­tion that peo­ple at­tend­ing a gath­er­ing along Lowkie Trace were in pos­ses­sion of il­le­gal firearms.

The ex­er­cise was con­duct­ed on Sun­day night un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, with sup­port from the Area West Task Force, Pe­nal CID, Siparia CID and the High Per­for­mance Pa­trol Team.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, of­fi­cers en­tered the se­cured premis­es where about 20 peo­ple were gath­ered and found a brown side-strap bag con­tain­ing the firearm fit­ted with a mag­a­zine loaded with 17 rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion.

Po­lice said en­quiries led them to a man from Syne Vil­lage, Pe­nal, who claimed own­er­ship of the bag and its con­tents.

The man told of­fi­cers he did not have a Firearm User’s Li­cence, Firearm User’s Em­ploy­ee Cer­tifi­cate, or an ex­emp­tion un­der the Firearms Act.

He was ar­rest­ed for pos­ses­sion of a pro­hib­it­ed firearm and pos­ses­sion of am­mu­ni­tion and tak­en to the Siparia Po­lice Sta­tion. In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.