FREEPORT, Grand Bahama -Two Americans were charged in Freeport’s Magistrate Court this morning with 34 counts of possession of firearms and ammunition. They are John Moore, 64, and Cheryl Gillingham, 51, who appeared before magistrate Ernie Wallace in Freeport.
The local Freeport businessman pleaded guilty to all 34 counts, while Gillingham pleaded not guilty.
Up to press time, Moore’s attorney Simeon Brown was still arguing his case. But Magistrate Wallace dismissed all charges against Gillingham, after the prosecutor informed the court that he had no intentions of pursuing the charges against her.
The huge cache of weapons and ammunition were found at a house in Royal Bahamia Estates on Friday, police said.
Acting on information received from the public, a team of officers from the Central Detective Unit (CDU), armed with a search warrant, went to the home around 10 a.m. and arrested the couple after they found 31guns and ammunition in a large metal container.
The arsenal consisted of 17 assorted rifles and shotguns, 14 handguns, one silencer and 70 live rounds of ammunition, including nine Teflon-coated hollow-point .9mm bullets commonly known as cop killers.
With the weapons laid out on a table in the foreground at press conference held late Friday afternoon at the CDU headquarters on Peel Street, Assistant Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade had high praise for the cooperation the police has been receiving from the public in their fight against crime in Grand Bahama.
“Once again we are pleased to say that the Grand Bahama community has delivered and delivered in fine form,” Mr. Greenslade said. “What you see here ladies and gentlemen is the end result of cooperation by members of the public working hand-in-hand with members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.”
Mr. Greenslade left it up to Assistant Superintendent Elsworth Moss, head of CDU in Grand Bahama, to give details of the confiscation of what is believed to be the largest number of illegal weapons ever found at one location in Grand Bahama.
Mr. Moss said the CDU received certain information at around 9:30 and dispatched a team of officers, headed by Detective Sergeant B.K. Bonamy Jr. and including Detective Corporal Daryl Rolle and Detective Constable Presley Rolle, to the home in Royal Bahamia Estates, where they discovered the weapons during their search of one of the rooms.
“This resulted in the arrest o a male and female, both residents of Grand Bahama, but citizens of the United States, and at this time they are being processed with respect to these firearms,” Mr. Moss said.
Sergeant Terrance Bullard, a firearms expert who is the officer in charge of the force armoury in Grand Bahama, described the various weapons and ammunition that were on display, pointing out that the Teflon-coated .9mm hollow point bullets “are extremely deadly.”
“We call them cop killers on the streets,” Mr. Bullard said. “They are very dangerous ammunition which can go through a bullet-proof vest.”
Superintendent Basil Rahming, police press liaison officer for the Northern Region, said he could not recall “any previous larger find of weaponry and ammunition in Grand Bahama.”
“I don’t know about the entire Bahamas, but I don’t recall any larger seizure of weapons ever being discovered on this island,” Mr. Rahming said.
Asked about a potential motive for the hording of such a large number of weapons, Assistant Commissioner Greenslade said, “When you look at the magnitude of what is before us, the implications are clear, and so there could be any motive with respect to the amount of firearms here.”
Describing the seizure as significant, he added, “If we find one illegal weapon, it is significant in our view because there is a zero tolerance with respect to the possession of illegal guns in The Bahamas, and indeed ammunition.”
He reiterated on several occasions that “none of this is possible without the support of the community that we serve.”
“It is a result of the cooperation that we receive from the public that we are able to invite you here this afternoon and to demonstrate our level of success,” Mr. Greenslade said. “And so I wish to echo clearly the sentiments of Commissioner Paul Farquharson and the entire senior team and all of the officers in Grand Bahama that we are extremely pleased with the level of support that we are receiving from the members of the public.”
The Assistant Commissioner of Police congratulated Assistant Superintendent Moss and the detectives responsible for the weapons discovery and arrests for a job well done.
And he issued a strong warning to “members of the public who support illegal activities,” emphatically stating that they will be “relentlessly pursued by members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.”
“We offer no apologies, and we again send the message clearly that crime does not pay, and we intend to do our jobs,” Mr. Greenslade said.
