Nagra Plunkett and Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporters

Members of the St. James Police Division (from left) Detective Inspector Paul Bernard; Deputy Superintendent Michael Scott and Deputy Superintendent Rudolph Taylor during yesterday's Gleaner Editors' Forum on Crime in Area One, in Montego Bay. The parishes in Area One are Trelawny, St. James, Hanover and Westmoreland. - Photo by Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Six persons including two police constables have been jailed for their alleged involvement in the escalating crime wave in St. James, which has left at least 31 people dead over the past four weeks.

Deputy Superintendent Michael Scott, head of the St. James Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB), said the constables were taken into custody on Saturday, for reportedly confiscating $97,000 from two key players in the illicit lottery scam, without arresting them.

Identification parade

"They are scheduled to appear before an identification parade next week," he disclosed at a Gleaner Editors' Forum in Montego Bay yesterday.

Their detentions came a week after Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas instructed the Professional Standards Branch (PSB) to vigorously pursue intelligence on police personnel involved in corrupt activities in St. James.

Fourteen cops from the division have been arrested for breaches of the Anti-Corruption Act over the past 18 months.

Meanwhile, the other four men have been charged with the November 18 multiple killing of four family members in the community of Retirement. Three other members of that family were also shot and injured in that incident.

Charged with four counts of murder, wounding with intent, shooting and illegal possession of firearm are 21-year-old Ricardo 'Stickman' Taylor; Ricky 'Tappa Rat' Thorpe, 23; Sylvan 'Penguin' Green 22, and 24-year-old Alroy Shaw, all of Retirement and Granville addresses.

The men were taken from a bus, which was among a motorcade returning from the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) 63rd annual conference in Kingston. The bus was stopped along the Rose Hall main road in St. James on November 19.

CRIME HOTBED

Speaking at the Editors' Forum, the police disclosed that, of the 168 murders reported in the parish since January, 115 have been concentrated in the hotbed of North West St. James, the constituency of JLP Deputy Leader, Dr. Horace Chang.

"It is the largest inner-city constituency in the island and the conditions have been an antecedent to criminal activities undertaken by a fair number of street gangs," Dr. Chang said. "Besides policing action, the lives of residents have to be improved and more opportunities for school dropouts."

In a breakdown of the 115 murders, Norwood accounts for 34; Salt Spring, 26; Granville, 16; Glendevon, 15; downtown Montego Bay, 15 and nine in Flanker.

"Gangs, as well as the fight over turf and guns, are the motive behind these killings," commented DSP Rudolph Taylor, operations officer for St. James.