By Adrian Frater, News Editor
- Adrian Frater Photo
WESTERN BUREAU:
A DEPORTEE, who it is believed can assist the police in their investigations into two recent drug-related murders in St. James, was arrested by the Montego Bay police in a pre-dawn raid in the Flagstaff area of the parish yesterday morning and over $2.9 million in United States and Jamaican currencies seized. Of the amount, $44,000 was in US dollars.
Mark Reid, 32, was held during an "intelligence-driven" operation in the Flagstaff area, according to Derrick Knight, Deputy Superintendent of Police and crime chief for St. James. He said Reid, who was deported from the United States last year, was arrested at his house after a search of his premises turned up the money, 10 rounds of ammunition, several appliances, a quantity of ganja and a newly-acquired Toyota Corolla motor car.
RAID RESULTS
DSP Knight revealed that Reid was wanted for several crimes in the parish, including murder.
He said that when the police raided Reid's premises, they found the money, which ranged from large stacks of US$100 notes to equally large piles of local currency, stashed in a speaker box in the house. He said that as the search continued, they also found the ammunition, identified as the rounds used by a M16 assault rifle.
"Based on what we saw in this man's house, we believe that he has spent at least a million dollars within recent weeks," said DSP Knight. "In addition to a motor car, which he recently bought, he also had a number of new appliances including a satellite dish, a component set and a 36-inch television set. There is also evidence that he started doing both extension and renovation work on his house."
By McPherse Thompson, Assistant News Editor
THE NEARLY 10-year-old Drug Offences (Forfeiture of Proceeds) Act has so far yielded the Jamaican Government more than $125 million, resulting from its confiscation of an undetermined number of real estate, bank accounts and motor vehicles, as part of the penalty to persons dealing in illicit drugs.
However, the figure, provided by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), is not conclusive as the value of various other assets seized from persons purported to have been dealing in illegal narcotics has not been quantified, partly because some of the cases are still before the courts.
Ironically, when The Gleaner sought to determine the overall value of assets seized, as well as from whom, the reasons and the banks involved in the case of savings and other accounts, queries were redirected to the Financial Crimes Investigation Division, the Organised Crime Investigative Unit, and the Narcotics Division, but they could provide no data.
Superintendent Devon Watkiss, the titular head of the Financial Crimes Unit, in explaining the difficulty to specifically quantify the seizure and or forfeiture of assets under the Drug Offences (Forfeiture of Proceeds) Act and the Money Laundering Act, said they were designed "to take the proceeds out of crime" generally and, as such, all anti-drug laws would be taken into account when prosecutions were made.
An official in the DPP's Office, who preferred not to be identified by name, also pointed out that there were many pieces of anti-narcotic legislation that permitted Government agents to seize and or forfeit property believed to have been derived from the proceeds of dealing in drugs.
"So it's difficult to say just how many things may have been restrained (by a court order) or seized over a particular period," said the official.
The officer said efforts were now being made by the collaborating state agencies the Organised Crime Unit, Financial Crimes Investigation Division, the Narcotics Division and the DPP to establish an asset management structure under the Financial Crimes Division that would bring together data on seizures and forfeitures under the various anti-narcotic legislation.
$60M IN PROPERTY SEIZED
The lack of a central databank notwithstanding, the official said they were able to determine that more than $60 million worth of real property had either been seized or forfeited under the Drug Offences (Forfeiture of Proceeds) legislation. In addition, bank accounts with savings worth more than $50 million, and conveyances such as boats, cars and other motor vehicles valued at more than $15 million, have either been seized or forfeited.
However, the official said the value placed on conveyances in question could be much higher, given that a number of others have been detained at police stations across the island, pending the outcome of legal action.
A distinction is made between those assets seized, which means action against the owners as to their guilt or innocence of dealing in drugs is pending in the courts, and forfeiture, which means final determination have already been made in those cases.
The official also said the data provided should be used cautiously "because there are actually several pieces of legislation under which property can be seized or forfeited" and, therefore, the figures would change from time to time. "It's difficult to give a figure that is totally accurate and up to date at a particular time," said the DPP officer.
In April this year, Senator Burchell Whiteman, Minister of Information, announced that Cabinet had approved a system for the management and use of drug-related funds forfeited under the Dangerous Drugs Act and the Drug Offences (Forfeiture of Proceeds) Act.
He said the fund would be placed under the control and management of a select committee appointed jointly by the Minister of National Security, the Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General.
The funds would be held in a special bank account, the signatories to which would be public officers from all three ministries, he said.
