By CECILY ASSON Tuesday, October 27 2009

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SWARMING: In this file photo, heavily armed policemen are seen outside the Mi5 Security Company in Woodbrook on Sunday shortly after 13 firearms were ...

EIGHT of 13 handguns stolen from the compound of Mi5 Security Company over the weekend were recovered in Curepe, St Joseph and Couva with at least six persons arrested by police, sources confirmed last night.

Six of the eight firearms were recovered in Curepe while the remaining two firearms were found in a Couva bar and six persons detained.

The firearms were stolen from the Alfredo Street, Woodbrook security firm on Sunday. Police sources did not state the make and calibre of the firearms recovered.

Police sources said that two guns were found in the possession of two men aged 26 and 27 inside a bar off the Southern Main Road in Couva. Police also said the men were trying to sell the firearms.

Two women from the Couva area were among six persons arrested inside the bar by police during the raid which netted the two firearms.

At about 3 pm yesterday, officers of the Central Task Force led by Sgt Hudlin and including PCs Boodram, Seepersad, Nelson and WPC Bailey and assisted by their Port-of-Spain Task Force counterparts, raided the bar and arrested the suspects and recovered the guns.

A search was carried out at several homes in a housing scheme in Couva, police stated. Police sources said parts of Couva were virtually locked down yesterday during the raid and police sources said that based on information received, subsequent raids in Curepe and St Joseph last night led to the recovery of six more firearms believed to have been stolen from the security company. Searches were conducted last night in Laventille, Arima and St Joseph. On Sunday, two men — one dressed in partial police uniform and the other in Mi5 operational wear held up a female security officer on sentry duty at the security firm. The woman was beaten by the men one of whom is said to be a former Mi5 employee before the intruders seized 12 firearms and a shotgun from a vault below the counter.

The missing weapons include 11 nine-millimetre semi-automatic pistols, one shotgun and one .357 revolver. A senior investigator said the weapons were not loaded.