‘WORSE THAN SHOOTERS’
Officials vow crackdown after massive gun smuggling bust in Kgn
Published:Friday | May 30, 2025 | 12:09 AMLivern Barrett/Senior Staff Reporter
Government officials have pledged to apprehend those responsible for the largest illegal shipment of firearms and ammunition ever intercepted in Jamaica.
Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang and the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) confirmed on Thursday that the shipment includes 233 guns – 159 pistols and 74 rifles – as well as more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition.
JCA personnel discovered the weapons concealed inside an industrial-sized water heater at a warehouse on Industrial Terrace in West Kingston, multiple sources reported.
However, Chang and Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake told journalists that it was too early to disclose details of the shipment, including where the guns and ammunition were shipped from, where in Jamaica they were headed, or whether authorities have made any arrests.
“The seizure is just the catalyst for larger operations that you may not be privy to. It is a transshipment activity, meaning that it affects more than one country, and we have relationships,” the police chief explained.
“The investigation is a broad investigation, and it needs time, and it needs space. Sometimes just the mere communication of that information can jeopardise the investigation,” he added.
However, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness touted the significant investments made by his administration in upgrading the country’s security apparatus and used the intercepted gun shipment to deliver a stern warning to Jamaicans at home and in the diaspora who are involved in gun smuggling.
“Two hundred and thirty-three weapons of mass destruction for Jamaica. We were able to detect them with our scanning technology, and we were able to recover them,” Holness said.
“I want to make an appeal to our Jamaicans overseas and those who are here collaborating in the importation of illegal guns. We will find them and we will find you and we are serious about that,” he added.
The intercepted arms shipment was enough to equip a company of soldiers, Chang said, underscoring the gravity of the seizure.
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of between 100 and 250 soldiers capable of performing specific functions independently.
“That level of ammunition in the streets, along with these weapons, is designed to create mayhem by distorted and cruel minds. These organisers are worse than the shooters, and they must be taken off the streets,” said Chang, who is also deputy prime minister.
“The security forces, working with [Jamaica] Customs and other agencies, including our [international] partners, will track them down.”
Since the start of the year, the police have taken 695 illegal guns off the streets, an 80 per cent increase over the record gun seizures in Jamaica last year, he disclosed, citing police statistics.
The police commissioner used the intercepted gun shipment to push back at criticism over the significant increase in police fatal shootings this year.
Jamaica recorded 135 police fatal shootings between January 1 and May 28 this year, according to the latest data published by the Independent Commission of Investigations, the police oversight body.
Blake said criticism of police fatal shootings causes “significant distraction” for the men and women of the police force.
“We just had a seizure of 233 weapons and over 40,000 rounds of ammunition, and counting. I don’t know what we think those things were for. This is what my men and women are up against every single day,” he said.
Blake urged critics to be careful of their utterances “because at the end of the day, there is a thing that we call self-preservation, and when you get police in self-preservation mode, it is the citizens who suffer”, he reasoned.
“Every time you are up against these hardened criminals, who are not afraid to murder a nine-year-old, and then you become the victim every time, then the next time when you are to respond, that is in the back of your mind.”
Blake said it is “hard work to remove that level of doubt from my members and give them the confidence to go out there and face these challenges”.