FOUR OF the eight persons charged in connection with the record ammunition find of 41,000 rounds and several guns in St. Catherine and St. Andrew last November, pleaded guilty yesterday to the charges. The others were freed after no evidence was offered against them.
The four who pleaded guilty are Oliver Irons, 41, part-time teacher; Leighton Pryce, 37, messenger, of South-ampton, St. Elizabeth; Philip Robinson, 20, of Mimosa Avenue, Kingston 10 and District Constable Desmond Gayle, of Eastwood Park Gardens, Kingston 10.
Mr. Kent Pantry, Q.C., Director of Public Prosecutions offered no evidence against Jacqueline Irons, 39, a former financial controller, Rosemarie Gayle and, Larry Yap, 32, businessman, of a Barbican Road address, St. Andrew and Noel Holness, a customs officer, who were all charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
Pryce pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deal and dealing in ammunition, District Constable Desmond Gayle and Robinson pleaded guilty to illegal possession of ammunition while Oliver Irons pleaded guilty to illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
Mrs. Justice Marva McIntosh has remanded them in custody to return to the Gun Court on June 13 when they will be sentenced.
District Constable Gayle is serving a sentence for possession of ganja.
Yap and Holness are to appear in the Revenue Court next week for alleged breaches of the Customs Act. They are charged with being involved with the importation of prohibited goods.
Charges were preferred against the eight in November last year when a team of policemen led by Metro Crime Officer Senior Superintendent Anthony Hewitt and Superintendent Donald Pusey stopped and searched a Toyota pick-up truck along Mandela Highway. The vehicle was carrying a washing machine, stove, television set and other appliances.
Ammunition was found in some of the appliances. Pryce who was driving the vehicle was taken into custody. The police acting on information went to the Irons' house at Meadowbrook Estates where 2,968 rounds of assorted rounds of ammunition were seized. The police then went to the Gayles' residence in Eastwood Park Gardens where 28,082 rounds of ammunition were seized along with a quantity of ganja.
Intensive investigations by the police led to the arrests of the other accused.
Shortly after the ammunition find, Police Commissioner Francis Forbes instructed the Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate the circumstances under which one of the men arrested in connection with the November 8 seizure came to be in possession of nine firearm licences.
