Po­lice be­lieve they foiled a planned re­tal­ia­to­ry at­tack when they seized a high-pow­ered ri­fle dur­ing an in­tel­li­gence-dri­ven op­er­a­tion in Cou­va on Thurs­day.

The op­er­a­tion was car­ried out by of­fi­cers of the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Gang and In­tel­li­gence Unit af­ter they re­ceived cred­i­ble and ac­tion­able in­tel­li­gence from a con­fi­den­tial in­for­mant.

Po­lice said the in­for­ma­tion in­di­cat­ed that mem­bers of a known gang op­er­at­ing in the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion and sur­round­ing ar­eas were plan­ning a reprisal strike in re­sponse to a re­cent dou­ble mur­der in the Jade Court area. The source fur­ther re­vealed that the sus­pects had hid­den high-pow­ered ri­fles in­side an aban­doned struc­ture along Are­na Road, Freeport, so they could quick­ly re­trieve them to car­ry out their plans.