Imbert: Illegal guns may have 'disappeared' from transit sheds

FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert said transit sheds from which illegal items were reportedly stolen were owned and operated by private companies and not the Customs and Excise Division.

He added that packages of interest to law-enforcement investigations, possibly containing illegal weapons, were also removed from one of the sheds.

Imbert made the clarification in a statement issued by his ministry on Wednesday in response to a newspaper article which gave the impression that customs operated and owned the sheds.

He said the article gave the false impression "there is poor security at bonded warehouses or transit sheds owned and operated by the Customs and Excise Division and, therefore, the Customs and Excise Division has been negligent."

Imbert added that the sheds "are owned and operated by private companies."

He reiterated that the sheds were closed after customs discovered that the their security systems were non-functional, packages had disappeared, and record-keeping was poor at the facilities.

The sheds, Imbert continued, will remain closed until their owners "remedied the defects in their security systems and records."

Imbert lamented "particular problems" with certain transit sheds.

"One transit shed was closed down because its security systems were totally non-functional.

"Unknown persons broke in and tampered with packages and removed items which we suspect were illegal items such as guns and ammunition.

He said the shed's operators did not even know someone had broken in to remove items, as their security systems were not working.

A similar case had occurred in another transit shed, he said.

"The customs was tracking packages 'of interest' identified by international law enforcement to contain illegal weapons.

"Those packages disappeared from that transit shed. They still cannot be found. That (shed) was shut down as well."

He said despite security considerations, he thought this information should be publicly disclosed.

He said the situation "has contributed to the current congestion in the clearing of cargo at this time of the year since the space for inspection of air cargo, specifically courier cargo, is now very limited due to the closure of these private transit sheds."

Imbert first spoke about this issue in the Senate on Tuesday.

At that time, he said the magnitude of the situation needed to be clearly understood by everyone.

We are talking about 150,000 packages expected during this month, perhaps more. In November, there were 167,000 packages."

Working hours for customs officers have been extended to 11 pm and additional officers have been deployed from Piarco International Airport to help clear the backlog of packages at the port, so people can receive them for Christmas.