Thirty overseas dons on police radar

Thirty alleged overseas-based gangsters are on the radar of law-enforcement officials in Jamaica who say they are responsible for the facilitation of violent crimes on the island.

Determined to take down these alleged gangsters, Prime Minister Andrew Holness yesterday left the island for Washington, where he said he would be meeting with key officials in government and law enforcement in the United States.

Holness said that his meetings with agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the US Justice Department are aimed at getting a "more intense cooperation" to deal with "foreign actors in our local crime".

Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson said the law enforcement officials have identified 30 major players who reside overseas but are believed to be responsible for crimes being committed here.

"Those who are over there, who believe that they are supporting violence and crime in Jamaica, and they are doing so without anybody paying attention to them, they are sorely mistaken," Anderson said as he underscored the country's determination to bring them down.

Meanwhile, Holness stressed that overseas-based dons have been having a corrosive effect on Jamaica's crime problem.

"In this season [they] will be sending the bag of rice and all the other goodies, but secreted in that bag of rice, wrapped up in that blanket, will be a gun or ammunition, or parts thereof, not for your benefit, but to give to a youngster to kill," the prime minister said.

He said that these dons should not contine to feel that they are free to influence the commission of crimes in Jamaica.

"I am serious!," Holness said. "If you are overseas and you are sponsoring, directing, soliciting or financing crime in Jamaica, we are going to get you," he insisted.