Witness was on hitlist of gang reportedly linked to cops

A plot to kill a “potential witness” in a criminal case is among over a dozen crimes investigators have traced to a Clarendon gang that allegedly counted eight cops among its members, a top police official has revealed.

The crimes mainly include shootings and robberies that targeted businesses across the eight parishes in which the gang operates, according to Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony McLaughlin.

“So far, there are 17 incidents that we believe they were involved in,” he disclosed during a Sunday Gleaner interview yesterday, suggesting that the number could increase.

McLaughlin, who heads the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Division, was “unable to say” whether any police-issued firearms were used in any of the incidents.

Four cops suspected of being members of the Ranko Gang, based in Clarendon, were arrested along with eight civilians in a series of coordinated operations across the parish on Friday.

One of the policemen is the son of a high-ranking police officer, according to multiple sources.

All four policemen are expected to be formally charged with various crimes “in the coming week”, McLaughlin disclosed.

“We believe we have enough evidence,” he insisted.

Are already in custody

Three other police constables – alleged gang leader Tafari Silvera, Christopher Robinson and Mark Bennett – are already in custody on charges of conspiracy to murder for the alleged plot to kill the potential witness.

A member of the gang was shot and killed and two illegal guns seized during a police operation that foiled the alleged plot.

The Sunday Gleaner first reported Silvera’s arrest last June. The constable, dressed in full uniform, was relieved of his police-issued gun and handcuffed in front of stunned colleagues inside the Hunts Bay Police Station in St Andrew.

Another constable suspected of being part of the gang fled the island after Silvera’s arrest and remains on the run, police officials have confirmed.

He was reportedly assigned to the St Andrew South Police Division.

“We are trying to locate him,” McLaughlin told The Sunday Gleaner.

The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), which has oversight responsibility for the police, is reportedly “taking an interest” in the arrests.

“Some of these names are well known to INDECOM,” one law enforcement source told The Sunday Gleaner.

The latest allegations of cops being part of a criminal gang is yet another low point for a Jamaican police force that suffers from low public confidence, according to various surveys conducted in recent years.

Mark Shields, a British-trained cop who served for several years as deputy police commissioner in Jamaica, believes the recruitment of cops who “turn out to be criminals” is a “major problem” for the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

While acknowledging the vetting and polygraph testing conducted by the JCF and the fact that prospective cops are a reflection of the society, Shields said too many bad apples are “slipping through the net”.

Trust and confidence

This, he said, is eroding the trust and confidence that the majority of police officers with integrity are trying to build.

“Trying to raise the standards of recruit is a constant battle,” Shields conceded in a Sunday Gleaner interview yesterday.

“We just have to look at the dreadful salaries police officers are paid for putting their lives on the line for their communities. If we do not reward and value our law enforcement officers sufficiently, is it any surprise that some end up being corrupt criminals?”

But security expert George Overton does not believe the arrest of the eight cops is a reflection of the JCF’s vetting process.

“It’s human nature. You have the strong among us and you have the weak among us and they will cross the line and go on the other side of the law,” said Overton, a retired army officer and private security executive.

What is encouraging, he said, is that the JCF is doing what is necessary to identify and weed out the bad apples from the system.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com