(Jamaica Observer) Less than 24 hours after the St Andrew South police urged the most wanted men in the division to turn themselves in, a massive police/military operation was launched in search of them.
The 10 most wanted men — eight of whom have been linked to murders — were given until midday today to surrender to the police, but with none responding to the call by 3:00 pm on Sunday, members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) — supported by the JDF Air Wing — moved into two of the hot spots in the division.
The joint police/military team, working under Operation Relentless — which was given a boost last Saturday with a series of islandwide operations in all police divisions to bolster the continuous efforts to combat crime and ensure the safety and security of the nation — swarmed the Greenwich Town and Whitfield Town communities,
“We have a lot of uneducated culprits in the space with high-powered weapons shooting at each other,” head of the St Andrew South Police Division Senior Superintendent Kirk Ricketts told the media during an interview in Whitfield Town during the operation Sunday afternoon.
“We are not very optimistic that, having seen their names in the media, they will come in. These are hardened criminals. Most of them can’t read and write, they don’t necessarily have common sense, but we have laid the table for them and if they want to come and eat, we are willing to have them come in — or otherwise we are willing to come and find them,” added Ricketts.
He pointed out that Whitfield Town is a “perennial hot spot” which continuously has gang conflicts.
“We are in search mode right across the country. The JCF has pushed out as much officers as possible to dominate the spaces, particularly the hot spots we are concerned about,” said Ricketts.
The divisional commander underscored that the crime rate in the St Andrew South Division, which is home to more than 20 inner-city communities, is not low, even though the numbers are now below last year’s figures.