Strapped for guerrilla warfare
Ellis says thugs stockpiling arms capable of mass murder
Published:Friday | February 4, 2022 | 12:07 AMAudley Boyd/News Editor
WESTERN BUREAU:
CITING THURSDAY’S big firearm bust and lottery-scamming arrest, plus the capture of several wanted men in recent days across western Jamaica, Senior Superintendent Vernon Ellis, head of the St James Police Division, said the security forces in western Jamaica had embarked on a major pushback against criminals.
“There are a lot of officers who should have gone home. They are staying back at work to make this thing work. We have officers who would normally end their shift, we’ve persons who are going, basically, around the clock to make this thing work,” Ellis told The Gleaner yesterday after a woman was nabbed in an operation at a house in Cambridge with paraphernalia associated with lottery scamming.
The St James commander bemoaned the continued deadly marriage between scamming and the illegal firearms trade as criminals use funds swindled from unsuspecting persons, mainly elderly Americans, to purchase “high-powered, war weapons”, which they then use in deadly attacks.
“They’re using it to populate the country with illegal guns, but the forces are targeting them. We’re pushing back,” said Ellis.
In neighbouring Trelawny, one man was killed, and 13 guns, including 10 high-powered rifles, were recovered during an operation at a gated community in Florence Hall on Thursday.
And earlier this week, several wanted men were captured in St James, where 37 illegal guns have been recovered since the start of the year – nearly a third of the total 126 guns taken off criminals in the parish last year.
“The guns that they are being found with are not cheap. We found an AK 47 and M1. The street name is ‘midgets’. It’s the second midget that we’re recovering since the start of the year,” Ellis revealed. “These are high-powered weapons with capabilities of causing mass deaths in any close quarter.
“Those weapons are made for guerilla warfare ... . When those weapons are fired in built-up areas, you can get mass murder because of the way they are designed,” he added.
Criminals have continued their bloody rampage across the island into the new year, leaving 129 people dead in their wake up to January 29.
The western parishes of Trelawny, St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland accounted for the majority of those killings, 49, which have since advanced with five more persons slain by gunmen over the past four days. In St James alone, 30 homicides have been committed since January 1.
This has forced the police to increase their numbers and activities across the parish, with noticeable presence on the roadways.
“We’re doing more aggressive road-policing,” said Ellis.
“We have to double our efforts, and the men on the ground are doubling their cause,” he added, noting their para-military functioning with the Jamaica Defence Force.