London gun may have belonged to police
The Police probe into the source of the weapons found in Linden London's apartment at the Toucan Guest House is homing in on the Sterling sub-machine gun found among them. Stabroek News understands that the Sterling sub-machine gun which has the number KR97281 on its frame reportedly belongs to the Police but that it has never been reported as missing. A high-level police official who preferred to remain anonymous told Stabroek News yesterday that no corroborative evidence has as yet been uncovered to confirm that the weapon was indeed from the Police armoury. The weapon according to a police release last week was linked through ballistic tests to robberies at Vryheid's Lust and Cummings Lodge on August 16, when $3.5 million in loot was taken by bandits. The release said too that the sub-machine gun and another of the weapons found in the apartment, a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun had been linked through ballistics tests to an armed robbery on September 17 at Industry Housing Scheme when $1.5 million in cash and jewellery were taken. Other sources, however, have cast doubt on the report that the gun came from the police explaining that the Police procedure with regards to weapons includes the use of strong boxes and keys being kept on the person of the authorised officers. This, they say, would make it difficult for a weapon to be missing without the police knowing. If this were to happen, the sources say that it would be a gross dereliction of duty on the part of some senior officers or evidence of the absence of control over the issue of its weapons. If there was lack of control, then according to the sources it raises questions about London's link to a number of robberies made through ballistics tests. London, an ex-soldier, was killed earlier this month after holding police and army units at bay for eleven hours at the Toucan Guest House. He was shot by them when he emerged from the burning building set alight by an anti-tank missile fired by an army special forces unit. He was persuaded to discard his weapons and to surrender after he was assured by a GDF officer at the scene that he would not have been killed. London, the Police have said, was wanted for crimes dating back to 1989 and which included 2 murders and at least 14 robberies. In a number of the robberies to which he was linked since 1998, some $100 million in cash and jewellery were stolen. Discovering the whereabouts of London's share of the proceeds from the robberies is part of the comprehensive investigation being carried out by the Police.
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