Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 27, 2015 (RSCNPF): Another illegal firearm has been removed from the streets of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Earlier today (October 27), members of the Special Services Unit of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force conducted an operation on the Southeast Peninsula in St. Kitts and netted (1) one illegal firearm with matching ammunition.
At approximately 1.25 p.m, a vehicle PA-4952, owned and driven by Ivette Richards of Irish Town was stopped and searched. The search yielded one .40mm semi-automatic pistol loaded with a magazine of (8) eight rounds of .40mm. ammunition. Two (2) other persons were in the vehicle, Terrence Ritchen alias “JT” of Newtown, a resident of Jessups Village, Nevis and Eric Thompson alias
“Jun-Jun” of Ponds Pasture.
All three (3) persons have been arrested and charged with illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition.
This is the second seizure of an illegal firearm by police within the last week. The last being on Wednesday, October 21 in Sandy Point and brings the total of seized illegal firearms for the year to 17.
Commenting on the result of today’s operation, one member of the SSU said, “the seizure of another illegal firearm in less than a week, tells me and the other members of SSU that we have to keep up the pressure. If we are going to keep our citizens safe, we have to be vigilant. Keeping our communities safe from violence is a priority for us, this seizure encourages us to keep on. I ask the community to help us, share what you know with the Police, lets do it together,” as his teammates nodded in approval.
Acting Commissioner Liburd noted that today’s seizure was encouraging and thanked the SSU for their continued dedication to duty, he added, “we urge anyone with information that can assist the police in our fight against crime, to call any Police Station in the Federation or Crime Stoppers, our confidential hotline at 1-800-8477 to share information, the information is critical to keeping St. Kitts and Nevis safe,” he said.