An audit at the armoury of the regiment's Cumuto base has been initiated by the police high command to verify that all military weapons are accounted for.
A national security source said Commissioner of Police (CoP) Erla Harewood-Christopher sanctioned the audit which is being done by a team of officers led by ASP Fransisca Rawlins of the Special Branch.
About two weeks ago, Rawlins encountered some challenges when she and her team showed up at the Cumuto base and were initially denied entry by soldiers.
Newsday was told by two independent sources, police and military, that Chief of Defence Staff Air Vice Marshall Darryl Daniel had approved the police audit of the regiment's weapons.
Homicide investigators have raised queries about ammunition casings with TT Defence Force stamps recovered at numerous crime scenes, particularly involving criminal gangs using automatic high-powered rifles to kill and maim rivals.
A report by Special Branch to the National Security Council, which triggered a chain of events at the Strategic Services Agency (SSA), referred to the loaning of four high-powered police weapons to be used by six named SSA agents on the instructions of a senior police officer in April 2021.
Those guns – two Sig Sauer MPX automatic rifles, and two Sig Sauer 516 rifles – which were returned by former special reserve police officer Ian Brown, the pastor of the Jerusalem Bride Church in Malabar, were once part of the cache of weapons used by the now-defunct Special Operations Response Team, established by former commissioner of police Gary Griffith.
SSA director Major Roger Best, who was among four people arrested by police on May 15, had established a Tactical Response Team (TRT), an operational unit under his command comprising 12 highly-trained ex-soldiers, for additional security at SSA bases and those officers were reportedly armed with multiple weapons. Those officers have since been terminated along with 13 other civilians working for the spy agency.
A short statement from the Ministry of National Security, said Cabinet met on May 18 and took the decision to advise the acting President Nigel de Freitas to terminate Best's appointment as director of the SSA with immediate effect.
Best was sent on administrative leave on March 2 by the Prime Minister, the head of the National Security Council, and retired Brig Gen Anthony Phillips-Spencer was recalled as this country's ambassador to take up the acting post of SSA director. Phillips-Spencer has since disbanded the TRT.
Best, his adviser Ian Brown, the SSA's former security supervisor, Portell Griffith, and Sgt Sherwin Waldron were arrested between May 15 and 16. They are being questioned by officers of the Professional Standards Bureau about the possession and transfer of automatic rifles, which are prohibited under the Firearm's Act.
Dr Rowley has sounded the national security alarm over the number of military-type weapons in the hands of civilians and has criticised Griffith for approving those licences during his three-year tenure
