By Travis Chase | HGP Nightly News|
SCHOONARD, GUYANA — A major intelligence-led law enforcement operation has resulted in the discovery and seizure of another massive cache of high-powered military weapons, including 23 suspected AK-47 assault rifles and 529 rounds of corresponding ammunition, at Schoonard, West Bank Demerara.
One man has been taken into police custody following the high-stakes highway interception.
According to official operational data obtained by HGP Nightly News, tactical officers, acting on precise intelligence, intercepted motor vehicle PAN 3673, which had been placed under state surveillance for its suspected involvement in a transnational firearm-and-ammunition trafficking syndicate.
During a meticulous search of the vehicle, law enforcement officials discovered the concealed arsenal.
The driver of the vehicle, identified as 24-year-old Humberto Rafael Perez Mendez, a Venezuelan national whose local address is listed as Cummings Lodge, Georgetown, was immediately detained at the scene. He was subsequently escorted under heavy armed guard to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters for interrogation.
Crime scene investigators and ballistic experts processed the seized firearms for forensic evidence. Highly placed sources indicate that technicians successfully developed several latent fingerprints from the rifles’ surfaces, which are currently being run through criminal databases.
A further search of the vehicle’s cabin uncovered a wallet containing an undisclosed sum of Guyana and United States currencies, multiple bank cards, a driver’s license, and Venezuelan identification documents confirming the suspect’s identity.
The high-powered weapons bust comes exactly two weeks after traffic ranks discovered 10 AK-47 rifles during a routine stop-and-search exercise along the Berbice Corentyne corridor. In that initial breakthrough, four men were formally charged and remanded to prison.
Intelligence sources have revealed that both major discoveries are directly linked to the same transnational arms-smuggling ring operating between Venezuela and Guyana. Authorities have launched a comprehensive, multi-agency probe into the source and destination of the military-grade weapons as the investigation widens.
