Phillips
Byron Buckley, News Editor
National Security Minister, Dr. Peter Phillips, says the society should brace for possible 'big-ticket robberies' and increased attempts at extortion, before crime begins to trend down.
These negative developments, he explains, are likely consequences of the successful dismantling of narcotics-based criminal networks by Operation Kingfish and other anti-crime initiatives. The effect of this, he argues, has "generated a dynamic of conflict between the criminal groups ... as they seek to replace the income that has been loss."
"You see it in the resurgence of big-ticket robberies that are being undertaken," Dr. Phillips told The Gleaner.
Early this month, bandits hijacked a Guardsman armoured vehicle in St. Ann and robbed it of more than $200 million. The perpetrators, identified as employees of the company, are still at large.
A week ago, James Crichton, a Montego-based businessman, was fatally shot by gunmen who stole a payroll he was transporting.
According to Phillips, the society will experience more of these types of crime as each criminal gang "seeks to sustain its income or replace the lost income from the drugs."
In addition to large-scale robberies, the national security minister said members of the displaced drug networks are now seeking to "intensify their efforts at extortion and other things."
Dr. Phillips based his view on the experience of the British police when in the 1990s it launched an assault on drug-connected gangs in an operation dubbed Trident. The British authorities report that their effort first resulted in a worsening of crime, but the trend was reversed within three years of starting the offensive. "Hope-fully, we can have our impact quicker than that. In this thing, what is more important ... is to sustain your will and determination to go on with it."
declared war
A determined Dr. Phillips, who a week ago declared war on criminals, said the country's law enforcement apparatus is going for the jugular and keeping the criminal network on the run.
"We still have to be vigilant in cutting off that income. We have to dismantle the gangs specifically, which is part of the task Kingfish has been given," he told The Gleaner. Operation Kingfish was launched last October, with support from British and American law enforcement personnel, to target local and international criminal networks.
Since its inception Kingfish has nabbed several high-profile drug traffickers, who are wanted by the United States for drug trafficking.
Dr. Phillips' projection of an elevated crime pattern in the short run comes against the background of more than 1,400 murders last year and approximately 300 so far for this year.
