‘Not my Shelly’

The disbelief was unmistakable on Charles Brown's* 82-year-old tear-stained face.

Brown, a church deacon, was trying to come to grips with allegations that his first granddaughter, Jamaican cop Shelian Allen, has been accused of drug smuggling and running a multimillion-dollar lottery scam syndicate.

“That cannot be my Shelly,” he said, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Not my Shelly. Not my Shelly.”

The octogenarian, other relatives and friends revered Allen, 42, as someone ambitious, caring, hard-working and the matriarch of her family. 

They spoke freely about the respect she commands in family circles and the wider community and her passion for assisting those in need.

“She takes charge of every family event, making sure that all is in place and that everyone is playing their part. Everyone listens to her,” Brown said, one of the few times he managed a smile during an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last week.

Helping those who needed it was “like an obsession” for Allen, said family friend Kevin, a businessman based in her hometown of Falmouth, Trelawny.

“She was a hard-working cop, kind-hearted and maybe a bit too popular in the streets,” said one of her colleagues, who did not want to be identified.

However, United States (US) law-enforcement authorities have painted a far different picture of Allen, accusing her of being a drug smuggler and one of the leaders of a lottery scamming syndicate that fleeced some 20 mainly elderly American citizens of approximately US$1.69 million.

Allen has been jailed in the state of Florida since February 3, when she arrived there on a flight from Jamaica.

Her 20-year-old son, the third of six children, was also arrested.

Allen faces charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud for her alleged involvement in the lottery scamming syndicate, in addition to drug trafficking charges.

One victim told investigators that she lost US$150,000, including her house which she sold to pay bogus fees to collect a US$18-million lottery jackpot and a Mercedes-Benz she was falsely led to believe she had won.

The policewoman is expected to appear in court this week on a charge of cocaine possession based on allegations that she excreted 90 pellets of the drug, valued at US$37,000, at a local hospital following her arrest.

There are claims, too, that she has told US authorities that she was transporting the cocaine for another member of the Jamaican police force.

The new allegations were shared with the Jamaican police by US authorities and have triggered a joint investigation around several cops suspected of being involved in the narcotics trade, high-ranking sources close to the investigation told The Sunday Gleaner.

A sworn affidavit filed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in a Wisconsin district court listed seven unnamed individuals believed to be co-conspirators in the lottery scam allegedly operated by Allen.

Four Jamaicans, including another cop, are among the seven accused co-conspirators, the source disclosed.

NO SIGNS OF EXTRAVAGANT SPENDING

Between 2019 and last year, according to the affidavit, approximately US$128,000 raked in from the lottery scam was sent “directly” to Allen in what federal investigators have labelled the Allen Lottery Scheme Organization.

Investigators, citing bank records and other documents, alleged that she made 24 purchases, amounting to US$2,440, at Florida-based retail outlets such as Victoria's Secret, Gap, Marshalls, Macy's, Foot Locker, Old Navy, Elegance Perfume and Polo/Ralph Lauren.

But her family and friends insisted that they saw no signs of “extravagant spending”.

Instead, what they saw was “a Shelly who would even work on a construction site to meet the needs of her children”.

Family members indicated, too, that as far as they were aware, Allen's frequent trips to the US were to “care for an elderly man”.

They admitted, though, that they “never asked questions”.

A US Department of Homeland Security database showed that Allen travelled to the US nine times between January 2019 and September last year, the affidavit by FBI special agent Thomas Koch revealed.

Brown said it was a dream come true for his granddaughter a decade ago when she purchased her home in Stonebrook Vista on the outskirts of the Trelawny capital. As one of her first acts, she relocated her grandparents there, though Brown would return to his home following the death of his wife in 2020.

The 82-year-old recounted the pride he felt when Allen enlisted in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) shortly after she completed high school.

“I was in full support because she would become somebody upstanding,” he said.

“Now, I may never see her before I die,” wondered Brown, who is diabetic.

At the time of her arrest, Allen was assigned to the St James Police Division, following her transfer from the National Police College in 2004, insiders revealed.

According to one insider, she served in several formations in the parish, including a stint as an intelligence operative in the Divisional Investigative Unit.

The JCF confirmed on February 5 that Allen had been suspended from duties with immediate effect.

The affidavit by special agent Koch includes transcripts of an interview with an unnamed American citizen, who admitted to collecting money for Allen in the US and transporting the cash to Jamaica.

The American, identified only as co-conspirator 1, told investigators they first met the policewoman in the Falmouth Market.

One senior cop believes the JCF waited too long to intervene.

The cop, who did not want to be identified, said the High Command should have intervened before it created such an “embarrassment”.

“They had eyes on her and they knew she was making frequent trips to the US without the consent of the commissioner,” the senior cop said, referring to police chief, Major General Antony Anderson.

“The JCF should have stepped in and saved her from herself, because she was caught on the wrong side seeking for the right thing. But the culture is to crucify a police that makes bad choices rather than intervene to help the individual.”

* Name changed to protect identity.

– Livern Barrett contributed to this story.

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com