Superintendent Stephen Dean said yesterday that police found a quantity of cocaine, marijuana and a high-powered handgun next door to an Urban Renewal office on Sunday.
Dean, the officer in charge of the Urban Renewal program, said police arrested a 31-year-old man in connection with that find. He said officers executed a search warrant around 5:30 p.m. of the man's Moore Avenue home.
The find comes less than a week after Dean told reporters that crime has decreased by 28 percent in areas where Urban Renewal centers are located.
Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis yesterday criticized the government for touting the program in recent weeks as the solution to crime.
"That's next door to the Urban Renewal center in Engerlston, right next door and you're saying you have the solutions," he asked.
"I want to see the facts. I want to see the analytical report that was done to compare and show convincingly that there was a decrease."
Dean said compared to the first six months of last year, crime was down by 28 percent in Pinewood, Kemp Road, Centreville, Bain Town, Grants Town, Fort Charlotte, Nassau Village and Engerlston, areas where Urban Renewal offices are located.
Minnis said he doesn't buy that claim though.
"People are now afraid to drive, and people are now afraid to come out at night," he said.
"So the government that had the solution for crime and armed robberies, etcetera, now has the people essentially trapped within their homes because they don't feel free to come out, because of the escalation in armed robberies and violence."
On Saturday night two men were gunned down in their yard near the Urban Renewal office in Nassau Village.

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