Cops recover deadly Intratec Tec-9 submachine gun

As the police last week launched its 'Get the Guns Campaign', which on Friday resulted in hours of searching at the May Pen Cemetery, Spanish Town Road, St Andrew, lawmen in St Catherine South are relieved after recovering one of the world's most deadly concealed-carry weapons from slain hit man, Alton 'Putty Wet' Maxwell.

Reports are that Maxwell had pointed an Intratec Tec-9 submachine gun at a team from the St Catherine South Operations Division, which had gone in search of him at premises in Caymanas Gardens.

A wanted man, Maxwell had twice escaped custody while awaiting sentencing for killing seven months' pregnant Sasha Gay Coffie at her West Cumberland, St Catherine, home in October 2013.

The weapon recovered is one of the most feared by law-enforcement departments across the world.

A police source spoke with an air of reverence, almost fear, in describing the capabilities of the Tec-9, which was banned as a machine gun, originally named KG-9, by the United States' Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms

In 1982, the bureau ruled that the KG-9 was an illegal machine gun, because of the ease with which it could be converted to fully automatic fire. However, the weapon resurfaced as the KG-99 after its manufacturer redesigned the KG-9's bolt to make conversion more difficult.

a deadly force

In the hands of Maxwell, who Superintendent Terrence Sancko, operations officer, St Catherine South, described as "a major violence producer" who was always armed and "had a propensity to shoot at will", police sources said the Tec-9 can be used with deadly force against law enforcers.

An article on the website of law firm Cotchett Pitre and McCarthy, 'Assault weapons: The case against the Tec-9', described the Tec-9's deadliness.

'The TEC-9 is a direct descendant of military machine pistols, which provide soldiers with maximum firepower in a small, light-weight, easily manoeuvrable package.

'The TEC-9 retains most of the characteristics of machine pistols, and serves the same purpose. While it lacks a fully automatic rate of fire, its 32-round magazine can be emptied in seconds.

'The TEC-9 offered firepower approaching or exceeding that of military-type weapons such as the AK-47 and the Colt AR-15.'

Sancko said he was thankful no member of his team was armed during the incident.

"It's always regretful in the event of death, but sometimes we are not too sad when these things happen. What I am grateful for is that they were able to safely recover a weapon of that calibre from the streets," he said.

The gun has been the weapon of choice in the killing of approximately 10,300 Jamaicans in the last 10 years, accounting for more than 75 per cent of 13,780 murders committed since 2005.