Senior cop warns gangsters out west

Criminals seeking to wreak havoc in the police's Area One Division are being warned to give up their firearms as lawmen continue their clampdown on illicit activities.

"If you are thinking about it, stop. If you are doing it, stop. If you are in the process of doing it, don't start. Look into yourself and fight it because we are not going to relent. Our intention is to win, so criminals be prepared to lose," warned Superintendent Eron Samuels, acting commanding officer for the St James Police Division.

Samuels made the comments after his team's recent success in a surge of operations that resulted in the recovery of 11 illegal weapons.

"We are happy with the success, albeit we would've wanted to capture some wanted men, but we have impacted the space in a positive way. Three of the guns are rifles, the others of those are Glock pistols, what they would call 'chip-flicks', which can fire multiple rounds at a time so we are really happy," he said. He noted that lawmen were also able to disarm one of the parishes most wanted men, Robert 'Ziggy' Calvert.

"We know the damage these weapons can cause in the wrong hands and we are happy we have disarmed him of rifle and handguns," Samuels told THE WEEKEND STAR.

The operations, which started last Tuesday, is expected to continue until next. It was deemed necessary by Samuels as there has been a recent increase in violent crimes within the division.

"What we realise is that those we haven't captured have attempted to flee the island because of our aggressive nature. I believe that if the citizens continue to work with us and the right resources come to us, St James, Westmoreland, Hanover and Trelawny, we will have greater successes and the crime rate going down," he said.