(Trinidad Express) Gangsters are brandishing far superior high-tech weapons than the police and other law enforcement agencies in this country.
Photographs obtained by TV6’s news investigative team from well-placed intelligence sources show three young men posing with these weapons.
Two of the men are holding two of the guns in their hands, while the next man with a thick gold chain is holding one in his hand.
In another photograph the man with the gold chain is sitting on a rock and has two guns on his lap and two in his hands. All the guns in the picture appear spanking new.
These photographs were taken in late June this year in the Laventille area and have raised major concerns in law enforcement circles as they grapple with the homicide rate that has escalated in this area in the last two months.
Sources at the police Crime and Problem Analysis Branch said at least 85 per cent of the homicides for the year are gun-related.
The reason for this mounting concern is the firepower that these gangsters are packing. The guns in the pictures are no ordinary guns. They are in fact AR-15 guns. This semi-automatic weapon in the hands of proven criminals can do serious damage.
Allison Hamilton, assistant secretary of the Trinidad Rifle Association, who has expertise about these weapons shared his insight. “What I know is that they are used by the US army and a lot of other armies around the world so they are serious weapons of war. For weapons like that to be in the hands of people on the street is a frightening situation.”
The AR-15’s firing capacity lives up to its menacing appearance. This semi-automatic weapon fires one round per pull of the trigger before reloading itself. So while it cannot unleash a hail of bullets like a fully automatic weapon, it can fire as quickly as the gunman can pull the trigger.
This was in fact the exact weapon used by alleged shooter James Holmes in the Colorado theatre shooting at the premiere of the Dark Knight on July 20 last year in which 12 people were killed and more than 70 injured.
“We have tangible evidence to suggest the gangsters in the hills of Laventille are using these weapons to zone in on targets in the East Port of Spain area,” the source said.
Residents along Nelson and Duncan Streets also claim that while they are out in the yard among the buildings they are shot at, and even showed bullet hole impressions left in the walls. “Children are playing here sometimes and they start to shoot at us,” said one woman who didn’t want to be named.
Several gun experts online describe this weapon as “rugged, reliable, portable and accurate”.
Intelligence police sources say gangsters here use two different types of ammunition with the AR-15, with either one having deadly consequences.
“The .556 have something like a .22 projectile and .762 have something like a 9mm projectile, the effective distance of the .762 is a lot further than the .556 but both are equally damaging to its target,”explained Hamilton.
The fragmentation of these ammunition can do greater damage to humans internally, travelling at a higher velocity, Hamilton pointed out.
