Police Commissioner: BPS Will 'Continue to Target Those Criminals Who Have No Regard For Law & Order'

As we move into 2019, Bermuda’s top cop has issued assurances that “more effort, greater intelligence will be used and more work will be done to make Bermuda safer”.

Commenting on the 48-hour sting of raids this week that netted nearly a million dollars worth of illegal drugs and three guns, Police Commissioner Stephen Corbishley said: “This is part of our continuing operation to tackle the effects of gang violence, the use of firearms in our community and to take drugs off our streets.

“What it is representative of, is a small number of criminal who are intent on using violence with each other, and the highest level of violence involving firearms.

“So by taking the firearms away from them, and taking drugs away from them that they will put on our streets, it impacts their ability to cause harm, distress and indeed loss of life to loved ones.

“So that’s the best thing that we’ve done.”

Moving forward, he said police will “continue to target those criminals who have no regard for law and order and no regard for the way in which those communities want to live”.

“It is Christmas and whilst the events of the past couple of days are notable, I would like to reiterate that Bermuda is a safe place – there are few firearms in Bermuda, there are few people that use them and our activities have addressed some of that matter over the past 48 hours,” Mr Corbishley said.

“I want people to feel confident in the Bermuda Police Service – confident that they can contact us, confident that we will keep it confidential and confident that we will do something about it.

“This is part of our continuing operation to tackle the effects of gang violence, the use of firearms in our community and to take drugs off our streets.

“So as we move into 2019 more effort, greater intelligence will be used and more work will be done to make Bermuda safer.”

But he said: “This however, is not a time for the Bermuda Police Service to be complacent – but it does highlight the work that still has to be done to make our communities safer.

“We are an intelligence led organisation and the fruits of activity over the last couple of days is testament to that fact.

“The communities where these firearms were found are good communities. They are communities with different people – seniors, young people, families, law abiding.

“Where we worked in the last couple of days is not representative of those communities.”

Officers executed several search warrants in the Curving Avenue area of Pembroke in a 48-hour round of raids that started on Wednesday, December 19th and continued on Thursday, December 20th.

Three firearms and a large quantity of drugs were seized, two of the guns recovered were found at one location.

“This represents a significant firearms recovery with three firearms and just under $1 million dollars’ worth of drugs being taken off Bermuda’s streets,” said the Commissioner.

He also thanked “all the officers who were involved in this operation” for “their hard work, attention to detail and dedication”, which “yielded significant results and ultimately our local community is the beneficiary”.

The Commissioner added: “I would also like to thank members of our community who heeded our call to be bold and communicate any information to us, no matter how insignificant it appeared to be.”