Firearm seized in Penal police operation

Of­fi­cers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) re­cov­ered a firearm and am­mu­ni­tion dur­ing an in­tel­li­gence‑led op­er­a­tion in the Bun­see Trace, Pe­nal Rock Road dis­trict.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, the ex­er­cise was con­duct­ed around 1:30 p.m. on June 27 in the vicin­i­ty of the Mud Vol­cano along a farm­ing dirt road. Of­fi­cers ob­served two men who, up­on notic­ing the po­lice pres­ence, fled in­to a near­by forest­ed area. De­spite ex­ten­sive search­es, the sus­pects man­aged to evade cap­ture.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors then turned their at­ten­tion to a makeshift camp in the area. A search re­vealed a shot­gun con­cealed with­in the roof struc­ture. Of­fi­cers al­so dis­cov­ered two 12‑gauge car­tridges marked “SAGA,” hid­den in­side a one‑litre cran­ber­ry juice con­tain­er filled with saw­dust.

The firearm was ren­dered safe and, to­geth­er with the am­mu­ni­tion, was processed and pho­tographed by Crime Scene In­ves­ti­ga­tion (CSI) of­fi­cers. Both items have since been sub­mit­ted for foren­sic ex­am­i­na­tion.

Po­lice say the re­cov­ery un­der­scores the im­por­tance of in­tel­li­gence‑dri­ven op­er­a­tions in tack­ling il­le­gal firearms, which con­tin­ue to pose a se­ri­ous threat to pub­lic safe­ty. While the sus­pects re­main at large, in­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve the dis­cov­ery has dis­rupt­ed crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty in the area.

The TTPS has urged cit­i­zens to con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing in­for­ma­tion that can as­sist in re­mov­ing il­le­gal weapons from com­mu­ni­ties. “Every firearm tak­en off the streets is one less op­por­tu­ni­ty for vi­o­lence,” a po­lice source not­ed.

The Pe­nal op­er­a­tion forms part of on­go­ing ef­forts by the TTPS to clamp down on gun‑re­lat­ed crime across the coun­try. Of­fi­cers re­main com­mit­ted to pur­su­ing leads in the case and bring­ing those re­spon­si­ble to jus­tice.