A RECENTLY established search unit was deployed to help recover weapons and ammunition which went missing on Wednesday. A Sterling sub-machine gun, two revolvers, and nearly 400 rounds of ammunition were recovered following the arrest of Constable Kwong Sze-wing in a Kowloon City park. A team of Kowloon City vice squad officers on anti-drug duties spotted a man near the Walled City just before 1.10 am yesterday. Officers said they found a .38 revolver loaded with six rounds, 14 spare rounds, and one round for the Sterling in the man's bag. Organised Crime and Triad Bureau detectives found the second revolver and the Sterling and about 130 rounds of ammunition in scrub underneath the flyover between Wai Yip Street and Kwun Tong Road in Kowloon Bay. Detectives and a team of officers from the force search unit found the remaining ammunition yesterday afternoon - 101 .38 revolver rounds and 119 rounds for the Sterling. Some of the seized bullets had been loaded in two Sterling magazines. Armed with sophisticated devices such as metal detectors capable of finding bombs and firearms, search unit officers began their work at about 2.20 pm assisted by three dogs. The head of the unit, Superintendent Colin Thornborrow, said the group was set up recently to replace the British Army in helping police search for explosives and firearms. ''We started off with three members and we are training more within the force. We are recruiting volunteers who want to join our three-week course. ''After that they will go back to their own units and are called out when need arises,'' he said. The unit has bought six Springer Spaniel dogs from England commonly used for searching for bombs. ''They are fast members and get in a lot of little different places such as narrow ditches,'' Mr Thornborrow said. Acting chief staff officer of the Organised Crime and Triad Group (OCTG), Acting Detective Chief Superintendent Albert Kwok Cho-kuen, said the arrest and recovery of the weapons was a combination of ''luck and hard work''. ''We took the case very seriously and we had pooled all the resources to try to find the missing officer and the weapons.''
