Tobago officers seize $.4M worth of illegal guns for 2024

ELIZ­A­BETH GON­ZA­LES

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

To­ba­go po­lice have seized ap­prox­i­mate­ly $400,000 worth of il­le­gal firearms and am­mu­ni­tion so far for the year in a crack­down aimed at deal­ing with gun vi­o­lence.

But even with a mur­der count of 25, some eleven more than last year, the di­vi­sion’s head vowed to work hard­er to get more guns off the streets with hopes of re­duc­ing homi­cides. 

The haul in­cludes 21 weapons, from high-pow­ered AK47 ri­fles to pis­tols and a shot­gun, along­side rounds of am­mu­ni­tion.

A source in the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit told Guardian Me­dia the es­ti­mat­ed black-mar­ket val­ue of the 21 firearms and am­mu­ni­tion ranges be­tween $363,000 and $483,000.

He said black mar­ket arms are ex­treme­ly high be­cause of the risks and, of course, its de­mand. 

For ex­am­ple, a box of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion bought legal­ly is priced at $200. 

Through the black mar­ket, it is sold for around $1,500, Guardian Me­dia was told by a li­censed firearm deal­er. 

Snr Supt Earl Elie said po­lice will con­tin­ue to tar­get the flow of il­le­gal arms in­to To­ba­go.

He said each weapon off the street means lives po­ten­tial­ly saved.

“The To­ba­go po­lice re­main res­olute in our com­mit­ment in re­mov­ing il­le­gal firearms off the street in To­ba­go and as such we are con­tin­u­al­ly see­ing the as­sis­tance of the pub­lic in this re­gard,” he said.