Police find UZI and other sophisticated arms and ammunition in forest in T&T's north coast

Sophisticated weapons found in north coast raid Thursday

Police recovered 13 firearms, including an Uzi and a Mack-10, and one flare gun in an exercise at Rincon, Las Cuevas on Trinidad's North Coast on Thursday morning.

The raid took officers two miles into the forest where police recovered 1 Bushmaster, 1 Mack-10, 1 Uzi, 1 Tech-9, 2 self-loading rifles, three 303-rifles, one .25-rifle and 4 pump action guns.

Police also found 17 assorted magazines and over 10,000 rounds of assorted ammunition, a kilo of marijuana, 3 bullet proof vests and 2 ski masks.

The UZI is one of the world's most famous weapons that is used worldwide by the armed forces, secret services, police and special forces.

It's the second major breakthrough in as many days with respect to illegal weapons.

Police are also trying to trace the source of five powerful guns seized Tuesday night from the TTPost facility near the Piarco International Airport. Officials said the weapons came from the United States and were to be shipped to Thailand.

Officers from the Preventive Branch of the Customs and Excise Department are working with Interpol agents in Thailand and the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officers to find out who was supposed to receive the rifles in Thailand. 

A media release from the Customs and Excise Division Thursday said the weapons arrived one month ago in a package from the United States for transhipment to Thailand.

The package was supposed to contained used motorcycle parts. However customs officers x-rayed the package and found the parts for the weapons. They handed it over to customs and the police preventive branch.

Deputy Comptroller of Customs and Excise Anthony Chandler confirmed that the rifles came into Trinidad and Tobago on August 8.

“We are still investigating both locally and internationally how these packages ended up in Trinidad with these items...the Organised Crime, Narcotics and Firearms Interdiction Bureau have been assisting us in this investigation and we are also in touch with the FBI and US customs and are also diligently investigating this which can be a violation not of US law but International law relative to the Postal Services,” Chandler said.

Panther Arms is the second largest manufacturer of AR-15 rifles in the United States and specialises in producing handcrafted black assault rifles.