RCMP raids find 13 guns ‘scattered’ inside two houses in Estevan

Having 13 guns scattered around two houses has led to criminal charges for a 26-year-old Estevan man.

In a media release Wednesday, the Saskatchewan RCMP said its Moose Jaw Crime Reduction Team executed two search warrants at houses in Estevan on Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation.

Officers found seven restricted handguns, three semi-automatic firearms, two shotguns and a rifle. One of the handguns and two of the long-barrelled guns were loaded, the RCMP said.

“Officers describe them as being unsafely scattered throughout the residences,” the RCMP said in a media release.

The man was charged with 12 counts of unsafe storage of a firearm, eight counts of possession of a restricted weapon in a place other than where entitled, and eight counts of unlicensed possession of a restricted firearm with readily available ammunition.

He appeared in Estevan Provincial Court on Wednesday.

The Estevan Police Service, the Saskatchewan RCMP Integrated Border Enforcement Team and the Estevan RCMP detachment assisted with the investigation.

“The seamless partnership between Moose Jaw CRT, other Saskatchewan RCMP units and the Estevan Police Service was pivotal to this investigation,” Supt. Glenn Church, the officer in charge of Saskatchewan RCMP’s Saskatchewan Enforcement Response Team, said in the release.

“Together, they’ve removed a significant risk from the community. These firearms were being stored in a careless way. Moose Jaw CRT is a new unit and one of its mandates is to disrupt the possession and trafficking of illegal firearms. They’ll continue to work to keep unsafe and illegal guns out of our communities.”