By NALINEE SEELAL Saturday, July 14 2012

The exercise began at about 11 pm Thursday and ended at 10 am yesterday. A total of 150 officers from the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF), Guard and Emergency Branch (GEB), Port-of-Spain CID, K-9 section, Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT) and the Court and Process branch were involved in the exercise.

Officers led by Senior Superintendents Carlton Alleyne and Wayne Boyd, Superintendents Kenny McIntyre and Ian Crooks and Inspector Sahadeo Singh went to various areas in Canada and Beverly Hills. Areas were cordoned off by the officers who proceeded to dig into the earth in specific areas.



While this was being done, other officers used metal scanners to locate buried arms and ammunition. During the raids, a 32-year-old soldier based at Teteron Barracks in Chaguaramas was held with 30 grammes of marijuana. Several other persons were held for outstanding warrants, robberies and other crimes.



Officers also seized an army camouflage kit, two pairs of handcuffs, two pistol holders and three pairs of army boots.



Officers later came across a 7.62 calibre rifle, a 12 gauge pump action shotgun and a 9mm pistol along with a quantity of 9mm ammunition, all of which were stored inside PVC pipes buried in the ground. The PVC pipes are used to prevent the damp earth from causing rust to the weapons.



Officers also found a tripod used to mount a sniper rifle and seized 35 kilos of marijuana in the exercise.



Senior police officers told Newsday yesterday the tripod find is very interesting because based on information received, it forms part of the equipment used by a person seeking to assassinate someone from long range.



Earlier this week, Deputy Police Commissioner Mervyn Richardson told Newsday in an exclusive interview that police had also embarked on a new anti-crime plan aimed at rounding up persons in various divisions suspected of being perpetrators of crimes. Even Minister of National Security Jack Warner boasted that serious crimes in hot spot crime areas showed signs of decrease during the nights.