Cop charged in murder conspiracy

The police constable who was arrested this month while on duty is facing formal allegations that he contracted three men to kill a Clarendon man.

Constable Tafari Silvera was charged on June 18 with conspiracy to murder following a ruling by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey has confirmed.

Christopher Robinson and Mark Bennett, two of the men Silvera allegedly hired, have been jointly charged with the same offence.

Robinson and Bennett are both from Cockburn Gardens, a community that falls within the St Andrew South Police Division where Silvera was assigned.

Bailey, who heads the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s crime and security portfolio, disclosed that the third man was shot and killed by the police in Clarendon and two illegal firearms seized at the scene.

“All three were part of the team that was contracted to kill the person in Clarendon,” Bailey said.

Silvera has been under investigation for possible involvement in other crimes, law-enforcement sources disclosed.

The allegations come more than three weeks after Silvera, dressed in full uniform, was relieved of his police-issued firearm and placed in handcuffs in full view of his stunned colleagues at the Hunts Bay Police Station in St Andrew.

Three weeks before his arrest, the constable was removed from the special operations unit and assigned desk duties, according to a Sunday Gleaner report, citing police sources.