The Galil assault rifle which went missing on Tuesday from the First Battalion, T&T Regiment, at Camp Ogden, has been found.
The Regiment did not say if anyone was held with the gun, just that ?investigations have so far determined that military persons were involved...?
The release said investigators were still trying to determine how the weapon was taken out of the camp, and that some members of the First Battalion would remain confined to Barracks.
The battalion was locked down and army personnel belonging to the unit confined to base when the Galil was discovered missing.
?The Commanding Officer of Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, Col Edmund E Dillon, reiterated that individuals found culpable will face the consequences of their action,? the Regiment said yesterday.
The Galil rifle was assigned to a recruit who belonged to the First Battalion, the largest in the regiment with 300-plus members.
His explanation was that he put down the weapon to use the toilet and found the gun missing when he came out.
The rifle?s magazine was said to be empty, because the soldier to whom the gun was entrusted did not draw his ammunition from the unit.
Dillon said at a press conference on Friday that a search was done at Camp Ogden.
Individual soldiers posted at Bravo Company were also searched, and five privates and two recruits isolated. The homes of seven soldiers were also reportedly searched.
Two weeks ago, the Guardian also reported that a soldier was held in a police sting operation with 30 rounds of 5.56 ammunition, the calibre used in the Galil rifle.
The soldier told the police that the ammunition belonged to the army. He was fined $10,000 by a magistrate and given a dishonourable discharge from the army.
Yesterday?s recovery of the Galil involved a combined effort by members of the First Battalion, the Defence Force Intelligence Unit, Police Service and the Special Anti-Crime Unit.
