WESTERN BUREAU:
THE ST. James Police High Command has declared ignorance to reports from key Montego Bay sources that a cache of AK-47 assault rifles was recently smuggled into the western city and are now being distributed to criminals in at least one volatile inner-city area.
"We know that AK-47s are in the country illegally, but we know of no specific shipments coming into any particular section of the island," said Superintendent John Morris, crime chief for Area One Police Division, which comprises the parishes of St. James, Hanover, Westmoreland and Trelawny.
"AK-47s have surfaced at two crime scenes since the start of the month, but we know of no shipment of such weapons to Montego Bay," he said
However, sources in the western city have told The Gleaner that gunmen in the Bottom Pen area recently acquired a number of AK-47s and that the recent tension in the area is as a result of
disagreement over how the weapons are being distributed.
"Nuff big gun come inna di place, a dem a buss from the other day," a Bottom Pen resident, who asked not to be identified, told The Gleaner. "The real big man dem nuh bother with handgun. If dem feel like, dem give dem likkle brother dem fi gwaan
practice."
SPENT SHELLS FOUND
While the source of the AK-47s cannot be independently verified, it is an established fact that the deadly weapons are in the hands of gangsters operating in the parish as the police reportedly recovered a substantial number of AK-47 spent shells at a murder scene in Bottom Pen recently.
In the incident, which occurred last Wednesday night, AK-47-toting gunmen invaded a section of the Bottom Pen community, killing two men - Richard Murray, 24, and Mark McIntosh, 26 and injuring six other residents.
"Dem (the police) a de only one who nuh know seh gun drop inna de place," the source added, treating the police's ignorance claim with scepticism. "I wonder weh dem think the AK spent shell dem a find bout yah come from."
