JAMAICA'S FUGITIVE Apprehension Team (JFAT) has about 40 provisional warrants for persons who are wanted overseas on various charges.
Provisional warrants are prepared overseas and sent here to be served on fugitives wanted in the respective countries.
"Some of these persons are considered to be 'big fishes'," head of the National Firearm and Drug Intelligence Centre (NFDIC), Assistant Commissioner Reggie Grant told The Gleaner yesterday.
Edmund Montgomery Rance, a 38-year-old Jamaican national became the ninth person arrested since January by JFAT. Last year they arrested 10, the previous year the figure was 24 and 1999 when they unit came into being five were arrested.
According to the police, Montgomery who is popularly known as Eddie of Queens Boulevard, Discovery Bay, St. Ann, was picked up on Monday in the Ocho Rios area. He previously lived at 14759 South West 1142 Milwaukee, United States.
Reports are that the fugitive was arrested at about 6:45 p.m. following a snap raid in the Ocho Rios area where he was seen and apprehended by members of the team. The police said a fishing boat named "Summer Dream" was also seized during the operation.
Rance was wanted by law enforcement authorities in the Southern District of Florida, for conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and attempting to possess cocaine with intent to distribute.
While in the United States he and another man were arrested in 1999, after 1,075 kilograms of cocaine was found in their possession. Rance however absconded bail and fled to Jamaica. A warrant was subsequently issued for his arrest in November 2000.
Not all fugitives arrested are extradited, however.
"There are cases where the request for extradition was turned down because of lack of sufficient evidence or they fail to satisfy the criteria," Assistant Commissioner Grant said.
Last January the Government extradited a Jamaican fugitive who shot and paralysed a policeman in Maryland, United States, 12 years ago. He was nabbed in the remote district of Top Hill in Clarendon by US Marshalls with the assistance of local officers.
Interpol reported that 37-year-old Wayne Anthony Davis became the 41st person to be apprehended by the JFAT since the programme began in late 1999.
In April last year assistant director of the US Marshals Service, Robert J. Finan lauded JFAT for its tremendous success in locating and returning fugitives who were wanted for crimes in the United States and Jamaica. Their efforts were recognised when they were officially designated as Deputy US Marshalls.
ACP Grant said he was satisfied with the team's effort. "The team has been performing excellently," he said.
