Police are currently tackling a string of recent criminal offences across Antigua.

Just yesterday, a 25-year-old man found harbouring a 14-year-old girl was charged with three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.

The child was found inside the man’s Five Islands home. He appeared yesterday before acting Chief Magistrate Dexter Wason in the St John’s Magistrate’s Court.

Meanwhile, police executed several search warrants over the weekend, which spanned several communities and uncovered large portions of controlled substances, firearms, ammunition, and suspected stolen items.

In a separate incident, a 27-year-old man was charged with one count of unlawful sexual intercourse and one count of serious indecency on a 12-year-old girl. His committal hearing is set for September 3.

Also, a Cashew Hill man has been fined a total of $25,000 after he was found in possession of a gun and ammunition. On Saturday, 39-year-old Christopher Hope was discovered with a .380 pistol and 10 rounds of matching ammunition at Jabberwock Beach.

The defendant is the proprietor of Hope Café at Jabberwock. He was not licenced to carry the weapon.

Hope appeared before All Saints Magistrate’s Court yesterday where Magistrate Ngaio Emanuel fined him $15,000 for the gun and $10,000 for the bullets. He has nine months to pay the gun fine and six months for the ammunition. Should he fail to do so, he faces up to 15 months in prison.

Meanwhile, 49-year-old Denfield Roberts and 24-year-old Deshawn Lattibeaudiere from Jennings have been charged with multiple drug offences. The charges include possession, intent to transfer, supplying, importation, and drug trafficking after they were apparently caught with 52.9 pounds of hashish said to be worth EC$590,200. Due to their lawyers being absent from court yesterday, their preliminary hearing was postponed until today.