Superintendent Cornwall Bigga Ford received death threat
POLICE yesterday seized several boxes of uncustomed items, valued at more than $5 million, from premises off Waterloo Road in Kingston. Several boxes of steam irons, television sets, blenders and other electrical appliance were among the items seized.
"Police acting on information swooped down on premises at 4 Annette Crescent, Kingston where they confiscated the illegal items," head of the Police Flying Squad Superintendent Cornwall 'Bigga' Ford told the Observer.
No one was arrested in the raid.
"The operation is the eighth such raid that the police teams, including the Flying Squad, would have carried out in the past six weeks," an officer on the scene said yesterday.
The officer said since the start of the year they have seized more than $30 million worth of illegally imported items.
"This operation is just a continuation of the efforts of the police to clamp down on the illegal trade," said Superintendent Ford.
Seven accused persons, said to be key players in the trade are now before the court.
"...The police will continue a manhunt to nab other criminal elements we believe are helping to push the trade," an officer said yesterday.
In the meantime, Superintendent Ford reported yesterday that he has received death threats, believed to be linked to the clampdown on illegal imports.
"I have been threatened but me no fraid a nobody," Superintendent Ford told the Observer.
It is the second time this year that a senior police officer has been threatened following operations to clamp down on uncustomed trade.
Earlier this year Superintendent Fitz Bailey, head of Fraud Squad, on a similar operation to seize several million dollars worth of uncustomed cigarettes, reported that he was threatened.