The Prime Minister of St Vincent (SVG), Ralph Gonsalves, announced on Sunday while appearing on WEFM that a new scanner that can identify illegal weapons could be deployed at Port Kingstown as soon as (Monday 15th).
According to Gonsalves, even though one machine was already established at Campden Park, it required some time to find the appropriate machine and set it up, and the cost of each unit was one million dollars.
One (1).38 Special Revolver and a comprehensive selection of ammunition totaling 2,538 rounds were taken into possession by the police on April 9. The ammunition included calibres such as.40mm, 9mm,.380, FN 5.7 x 28mm, and.22mm ammunition. In addition, the police were able to seize an extended magazine and a quantity of pyrotechnics that landed at Port Campden Park.
“In local parlance, we called them X-ray machines to see through packages, and that is how it was found. The ammunition and the gun even before anybody came so that it could be opened”.
According to Gonsalves, a member of the opposition stated that the government ought to immediately transfer the information to the FBI so that they may provide a report and determine the linkages; nevertheless, the system is already in place.
St. Clair Leacock, a member of the opposition, stated on Wednesday that the New Democratic Party (NDP) is requesting that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Interpol investigate the manner in which a stockpile of more than two thousand pieces of ammunition and a rifle managed to circumvent safety protocols at a port in the United States.
Leacock noted that the party is also requesting that the government conduct an investigation that is both comprehensive and impartial. This is due to the fact that the subject is too significant for the local police to handle on their own, Leacock said.
“We have an institutional system where all these reports go immediately to the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security. And we had been trying for some time to get greater collaboration—the whole of CARICOM, including SVG—with the responsible agencies in the United States, including the agency responsible for alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.”
“They have helped us in the past, but we managed to get help from the Biden administration, somebody who is embedded inside of IMPACTS, and the intelligence agency connected to IMPACTS to deal with matters of this kind on an ongoing basis. We need more personnel from them, but there is a structured mechanism, so we don’t have to make a formal request to anybody.”
Gonsalves has stated that he does not wish to comment on all of the particulars and interconnections, but he does wish to reassure the general public that the situation is being addressed.
“I want to assure everybody that this matter is being addressed by the police and our regional and international partners in a structured and organised manner. And I’m hopeful we haven’t heard the last of that in the sense of where the chain may lead.”
According to Gonsalves, the two machines, in conjunction with the structured intelligence linkages that are in place, will be of tremendous assistance.
“However, it has to be noted that this would not, of course, address the issue of firearms, which may be brought in illegally through a number of different cays and bays”, he stated.
