THE police have charged 51-year-old St Elizabeth businessman Godfrey Martin, otherwise called Rev, with conspiring to illegally import 21 guns and over 2,200 rounds of ammunition into the island.

The two charges were laid on Wednesday and stem from a March 4 bust at a warehouse in Kingston, where authorities discovered 18 handguns along with three rifles and 2,216 assorted rounds of ammunition.

Martin is to appear in the Gun Court on September 16.

Following intense investigation, detectives assigned to the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigations Branch (C-TOC) arrested Godfrey on August 7 in Ocho Rios, St Ann, at an entertainment event.

According to the police, they see the arrest of Rev as having put a major dent in the illegal firearms trade.

In March, two foreign nationals — 36-year-old Jermaine Baker of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and 42-year-old Dervan Brown of Bronx, New York — were arrested and charged in connection with the find. They were both charged with the illegal importation of firearms and ammunition.