Police seized three firearms and drugs with a street value of nearly $1 million in raids in Pembroke this week.

One person is in police custody after two days of activity in the Curving Avenue area, Commissioner of Police Stephen Corbishley told a press conference yesterday.

Mr Corbishley said several search warrants were carried out in several communities this week.

The raids took place on Wednesday and Thursday. He said police hope to make further arrests after the guns are analysed for DNA.

Ballistics tests will also be conducted to see if these firearms have been used in previous shootings, Mr Corbishley said.

The drugs were a combination of cannabis, crack cocaine and others.

Mr Corbishley said: “This represents the most significant firearms recovery with three firearms and just under $1 million worth of drugs being taken off Bermuda streets.”

Two of the firearms were found in the same location.

Rolfe Commissiong, MP for Pembroke South East, said: “With three guns off the street, it is a good day for Bermuda.”

However, Mr Commisiong said that more has to be done to address the underlying causes of drugs and guns in communities.

He pointed out that guns and drugs are usually found in communities that are at the bottom of the income ladder and said that the cycle will continue until income inequality is dealt with.

Mr Commissiong said: “The growth of the illicit economy principally around the drug trade, another by-product of the impact of living in a country with very high levels of income inequality, is what has at heart been fuelling the gang formation and violence over the last two decades.

“It is concentrated primarily within economically marginalised young black men throughout the country.”

One community member, who asked not to be named, said: “I feel very good about this. If you take the guns out of the community, the community becomes safer. We thank the authority,” he said.

Mr Corbishley praised the hard work and dedication of police officers carrying out intelligence-based operations but said work would continue in these communities.

“This, however, is not a time for us to be complacent, but it just highlights the work that has to be done to make the community safer,” he said.

Mr Corbishley said the guns and drugs removed from the street will impact the ability of criminals to “cause harm, distress and the loss of life.”

He added: “I want a vacuum in the drug market. I want drugs to be off my streets. I want to reduce the amount, the availability and the access that young people have to drugs.”

He called on people to trust the police and to share information with the police to make communities safer.

Mr Corbishley said: “I want people to feel confident in the Bermuda Police Service, confident that they can contact us, confident that we will keep it confidential.”

He added: “The communities where these firearms were found are good communities. They are communities with different people: seniors, young people, families, law abiding.”

He said it was still early to confirm if the find was related to any gang operations.

Six firearms have been seized so far this year by the police. One firearm was recovered by the police last year, three in 2016 and seven in 2015. In total, 22 have been recovered in the past seven years.