Massive police raid on businessman’s home produces puny results
Tonight a well known businessman, Jose Shoman, and his wife, Malachi, are out on bail after a drawn out police raid which lasted for more than five hours at their home. The search, which included a dog from the K-Nine Unit, started out around nine this morning when a fleet of five vehicles arrived at the couple’s home at mile two on the Northern Highway. The officers entered the family’s home by way of two ladders after they claimed their knocks on the front iron gate yielded no response. A family member later told us that they honestly heard no one at the front gate and attributed that to the size of their three-storey home and its distance from the gate.
After the five-hour search, officers escorted the couple to the Queen Street Police Station where two charges were laid against them: possession of unlawfully excessive quantities of twelve gauge shotgun cartridges and point thirty-eight ammunition, along with possession of an unlicensed shotgun. In court at five-fifteen this evening, Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb offered the Shomans bail in the amount of five thousand dollars each after they pleaded not guilty to the charges. They were ordered to return to court on June eleventh. They are defended by Senior Counsel, Edwin Flowers.
A family member told News Five that the charge for the unlicensed pump action shotgun came about when it was discovered that the license they have for the weapon shows a discrepancy of one digit compared with the one on the weapon. Our source says the gun was passed down from their father, Jose Shoman Senior, some forty years ago and each year its license has been renewed with the same error undetected by both authorities and the family. The charges of unlawful possession of ammunition come as a result of the law which prohibits any gun holder from having more than a hundred live rounds in their possession. In this case, the couple had one hundred and ninety-one and one hundred and twenty-eight rounds of ammunition respectively.
As one of the search parties was leaving the residence, it caused an accident on the Northern Highway when it its driver failed to put on his indicator as it entered traffic. The driver of the Toyota Corolla could not apply brakes in time to avoid the collision. The police vehicle involved was one of the six Great Wall pick-ups purchased less than a month ago for the Department. It is not known if the police officer will be charged for reckless driving.
On a more serious note, senior police officials were mum tonight about why such a massive show of force was used to produce such embarrassingly meager results. The official line is that solid intelligence indicated that something more serious would be found at the Shoman compound. Other sources indicate that while the cops hoped to find more, the raid was meant as a warning to those who under the previous administration enjoyed a close relationship with certain police officers that it will no longer be business as usual.
