By NALINEE SEELAL Saturday, September 26 2009

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STRESSED OUT: Kathleen Osbourne weeps shorly after returning to her Beetham home to discover her house ransacked and two sons and a daughter-in-law be...

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OVER 300 police officers with tracker dogs yesterday virtually locked down the Beetham Gardens in a surprise early morning raid, which led to the arrest of 29 persons, the seizure of two guns and a quantity of marijuana and even the searching of the lunch kit and school bag of a youngster.

The raid started at 4 am and ended six hours later. It was coordinated by acting Police Commissioner James Philbert and led by ASP John Martinez and Inspector Sahadeo Singh.

Philbert said the exercise was aimed at flushing out criminal elements and seizing illegal arms, ammunition and drugs.

When Newsday visited the area yesterday, heavily armed police officers were seen searching homes, while a helicopter hovered above. Almost 50 houses were searched and while some residents protested the presence of the police, others welcomed it.

Some residents claimed that their homes were ransacked, money stolen and valuables damaged during the exercise. They claimed, that while it was true that some criminal elements have been hiding out in the Beetham Gardens, the area has several law-abiding citizens, who did not deserve the treatment meted out to them yesterday. Even a schoolboy got caught up in the raid when burly police officers searched his lunch kit first but then school bag.

Another resident, Kathleen Osbourne, a mother of two, said she was not at home when the police arrived but returned home to find her house ransacked and that her two sons and 18-year-old daughter-in-law were detained.

The teen’s four-month old son was left with a neighbour and Osbourne was in a predicament as to how to pacify the child.

She told Newsday that she had no money to travel to the Besson Street Police Station to enquire about her children and daughter-in-law.

Wiping tears from her eyes, the distraught woman said she was in no position to secure bail for her children and wanted the police to be lenient to her daughter-in-law because of the baby.

“I am stressed out, I have no money, and I don’t know what is happening to my children,” said Osbourne.

Following yesterday’s exercise, several Beetham residents displayed broken furniture, kitchen utensils and ornaments at their homes.