West Bay residents asked…
And now they have received.
During a 1 April meeting with Acting Police Commissioner David George and West Bay police station commander Angelique Howell, several people suggested that the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service’s priorities were wrong. They said officers were spending too much time on traffic enforcement and not making enough effort on busting drug dealers and firearms crime.
In the week since that meeting, 22 people have been arrested in West Bay, a dozen pounds of ganja has been recovered, and two guns seized by police. Some of the arrests were made in connection with a Saturday morning shooting on Miss Daisy Lane.
‘We’re out there fighting back,’ Ms Howell said. ‘We’re making sure we take back our community.’
On 2 April, six pounds of ganja was seized from an area along Kings Road. No one was arrested but police said the drugs appeared to have been stashed there and wrapped as if for sale.
A day later, two people were arrested during a pre-dawn police raid on a Boltins Avenue home. Again, six pounds of ganja was found and the drugs appeared to be packaged for sale.
On Friday, 4 April, into the early morning hours of Saturday, 13 people were arrested on various offences including; suspicion of possession and/or use of ganja or other illegal drugs, possession of an offensive weapon, disorderly conduct, and drink driving.
Monday afternoon, six more people were taken into custody on drugs and weapons charges following another police raid on a Town Hall Road address. Two guns were found at the home.
Ms Howell said officers were looking into the possibility that some of the men arrested Monday were involved in a Saturday morning incident where a man was shot at inside his home.
A 23-year-old man was arrested earlier in connection with that shooting. No charges had been filed against him at press time.
The Saturday morning gunfire was believed to be related to a Friday night shooting where a 24-year-old man was hit in the arm.
It was Chief Inspector Howell who drove that man to hospital in a police car. She and other officers were out on patrol Friday night in the area close to where the man had been shot. Police said he ran to them for help after a bullet pierced his upper left arm.
Ms Howell said high-visibility, proactive police patrols in West Bay will continue under the supervision of RCIPS Inspector Charles Best for the foreseeable future.
‘We will continue to work hard in this area to identify those people involved in drugs and illegal weapons,’ she said.
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