The laptop and high-powered weapons seized when the army intercepted a vehicle at Good Hope in December 2002 are still believed to be in police custody.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon who also chairs the Defence Board said he presumes that the items have been retained by the force ever since the end of the trial, which saw the trio being freed.

At the time of the army's interception a search of a blue pick-up purported to be that in which the men were travelling revealed several high-powered weapons including M15 rifles and Glock pistols among other weapons and ammunition.

The men who were subsequently handed over to the police denied ownership of the weapons purported to have been found during the search.

Questioned on the whereabouts of the items at a press conference yesterday Luncheon said that his guess is that the police had retained them after the trail ended. He was however uncertain as to the exact location of the articles. Efforts to contact officials from the Guyana Police Force on the issue yesterday were unsuccessful.

However, reports in this newspaper in 2003 had said that both the bullet-proof pick-up and other accessories seized by the army had been returned to the owner.

Among the items found in the vehicle were two assault rifles fitted with telescopic lenses, a 12-gauge pump-action rifle, an Uzi submachine gun, two Glock pistols as well as other handguns, a laptop computer capable of intercepting cellular calls and a plan of the city, two bullet-proof vests, two camouflage caps and two helmets as well as a large quantity of ammunition of varying calibre.

A senior police official had told Stabroek News sometime back that the force had retained all of the weapons in the Good Hope arms case owing to the fact that they were illegally obtained.

The police source had further told this newspaper that by virtue of the fact that the weapons were unlawful, no one had any claim to them and they would remain in the custody of the force.

Police impounded the pick-up, which was fitted with half-inch thick bullet-proof windows, after the men were detained.

The laptop computer was programmed to track the location of cellular phone users and a list of names and cellular telephone numbers of wanted men as well as other persons were retrieved by intelligence personnel.