THE Customs Officer and three other men who were charged in connection with the discovery of two illegal firearms and a quantity of ammunition discovered in Newton Ground some two weeks ago, were granted bail but are still on remand at Her Majesty’s Prison.
The four men, Customs Officer Darren ‘Bookie’ Caines, Keithroy ‘Luddy’ Freeman, Alyston Douglas and Tijmah Jones, all residents of St. Paul’s Village, had appeared in the Magistrate’s Court in Basseterre on Friday (Sept. 1) and were each granted bail to the tune of EC$150,000 with two sureties and ordered to surrender their travel documents..
This publication was informed that the men had returned to prison because they were unable to secure the two sureties at that time.
The four men were each charged with two counts of possession of firearm, two counts of possession of firearm with intent by means thereof to endanger life, and one count of possession of ammunition.
The men were arrested on Saturday (Aug. 19) in the Newton Ground area after members of the Special Services Unit and the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force on a surveillance mission had stopped and searched two vehicles in which they were in.
The search allegedly revealed the discovery a Glock 23 Pistol with 20 .40 rounds and a Ruger SR 40 Pistol with 11 rounds and the men were taken into custody.
On Tuesday (Aug. 29), a police communiqué had stated that Caines and Freeman were each slapped with the five charges, while similar charges were laid against Douglas and Jones a few days later, and they were all remanded to prison pending bail hearing.
That discovery had taken to 37 the number of illegal firearms taken off the streets of St. Kitts and Nevis for 2017; one more than the total seized last year.