- Missing Aircraft, Ammunition Cache Highlight Security Concerns in St. Vincent
St. Vincent’s main opposition party (NDP) wants the FBI and Interpol to investigate how a stockpile of more than 2000 pieces of ammunition, along with a firearm, bypassed security protocols at a U.S. port and ended up at the Campden Park container port.
St. Clair Leacock, the party’s vice president says the NDP is also demanding that the government undertake a comprehensive and impartial inquiry, as the matter is too significant for the local police to handle on their own.
St. Vincent Police reported that on Tuesday, a seizure took place at Port Campden Park. The items confiscated included a single (1) .38 Special Revolver, a wide range of ammunition amounting to 2,538 rounds, which covered various calibers such as .40mm, 9mm, .380, FN 5.7 x 28mm, and .22mm. Additionally, an extended magazine and a quantity of fireworks were also seized.
The opposition Member of Parliament stated that this is a perilous and grave issue that should deeply concern the citizens of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
“The matter should consume the people of this country as to whether these breaches of national security that are threatening the lives of our people in public places and spaces are being facilitated by an administration that is not doing enough.”
“These 2000 rounds of ammunition that have come into St. Vincent must have left a port to get here. In this case, I assumed it left a port in the United States of America. So they have an interest in it as to how ammunition slips through their own dragnet and their own searches in America that scan containers and other things.”
“We should ask the FBI to be involved. It is too big a matter to leave to our local forces to do by themselves, and this matter requires a full, independent inquiry and investigation as to how those ammunition’s came here, who they were assigned to trace all the way back to America, and who went to the shipping agency to ship these items”.
”Somebody needs to be held accountable. The aircraft’s disappearance from Canouan, which is no longer on people’s minds after a nine-day discussion, also requires an explanation. And we should not rest until we have been given a clear commitment by the Minister of National Security and the government that they have asked Interpol or the United States of America through the Federal Bureau of Investigations to get involved in this matter.”
Leacock asserted that due to the escalating crime rates and the recent arrival of 2000 rounds of ammunition in SVG, it is imperative for Vincentians to become aware and vigilant.
The MP said the NDP is alarmed at how quickly some in the governmental authority have sprung into the conversation, insinuating that the cache of ammunition came under a false name.
“The New Democratic Party is alarmed at how quickly some in governmental authority have jumped into that conversation to advise people not to have things sent here in your name, insinuating that the ammunition may have come here in a false name.”
“We’re always quick to give explanations when something is amiss. It is exactly the same thing that happened a few months ago, when an aircraft came to Saint Vincent, took on thousands of gallons of fuel, took off from Canouan, and disappeared. And we are told that they deliberately turned off the radar systems, and nobody could track them, Leacock said.
