(Jamaica Gleaner) The Government is today expected to provide answers to a report out of the United States, which has contradicted information provided by the government, in the aftermath of the West Kingston operation last year.
An investigative piece in the American magazine, The New Yorker has revealed that despite the Jamaican government saying otherwise, a US spy plane did in fact take surveillance imagery of Tivoli Gardens on May 24, 2010 during the security operation.
The Gleaner/Power 106 News centre was unable to reach security minister, Dwight Nelson last night for a comment.
However information minister, Senator Arthur Williams, said Nelson would be attending today’s post-Cabinet press briefing and therefore would be available to address the matter.
When quizzed about the issue last year, then information minister, Daryl Vaz, had denied Jamaica had received any external help:
However, the Department of Homeland Security incident report and the US Drug Enforcement Authority have confirmed that the plane assisted the Jamaican government during the Tivoli operation.
It also said that the P-3 Orion passed information to U.S law-enforcement officers stationed at the Embassy, who provided that information to Jamaican authorities.
The Tivoli operation which happened from May 24 to 25 in 2010 was designed to capture convicted drug dealer Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke and resulted in the deaths of 74 persons.
