MEDIA STATEMENT.
Police in East New Britain have arrested a man in possession of 810 live ammunition hidden at the end of Palmalmal airport.
According to police, those types of ammunition are believed to have been used during World War II.
According to police, the live ammunition was found at the end of the Palmalmal airport near the Pomio District Head Quarters.
The village leaders informed the police about the presence of live ammunition in the village and a report was sent to the police, who launched an operation on November 3 in the village leading to where the ammos were with the help of village leaders and some good citizens.
Police entered the location at the end of the airport and confiscated the ammunition and arrested a 27-year-old man. from Marana village who brought the ammo and hit them at the airport.
The New Guinea Islands Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Perou Ndranou, has confirmed that the man is currently detained at Palmalmal Police Station and will be charged accordingly.
He said the total number of real bullets confiscated was 810, of which 50 were real sub-machine gun calibre bullets used in World War II.
He said the ammunition would be cleaned and classified accordingly.
“I would like to thank Palmalmal police officers and leaders for working together to successfully arrest the suspect and confiscate the live ammunition.
Live bullets pose a threat to the village and can do anything to harm anyone in the village.
I want to call on the people there to report any such incident because there are many war remnants in this area. With the increasing number of homemade guns these bullets will be used to harm people,” ACP Ndranou added.
ACP Ndranou added that community leaders quickly alerted the police when they saw youths in that village collecting these ammunition.
The ammunition was then packed into a bag weighing about 40 kg and transported to the village.
He said, when leaders saw this, they quickly informed the police to confiscate the ammunition.
He said this was one of the largest quantities of live ammunition collected.
“I think there are still many of such in this area, that is why I call on the relevant authorities to go to this area and try to find out more because it is a threat to the people living there.
