Businessman arrested for prohibited weapon

The weapon may not pack the wallop of the Utatlan’s twenty-millimetre cannon, but its possession could land a well-known Belize City building contractor in jail. Fifty-five year old Carlos Barillas was home alone, when around 11:15 Wednesday morning, acting on a tip, the police pulled up at his King’s Park residence. The tip turned out to be a good one as inside a small building, which is used as a generator room, the police found an AK-47 submachine gun. The weapon was packed in a barrel and wrapped in some clothes. Also found in the room were two boxes containing thirty-one rounds of 7.62 ammunition. Barillas was promptly arrested and charged with the keeping of a prohibited firearm and unlicensed ammunition. This morning, Barillas appeared in Magistrate’s Court where he pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was offered and met bail in the amount of four thousand dollars plus two sureties of the same amount. The case will be heard on August twenty-fourth.