Police disrupt gang linked to commercial break-ins across three parishes

Commanding Officer of the Portland Police Division, Superintendent Ainsley McCarthy, says the police have disrupted an organised criminal group believed to be responsible for a series of commercial break-ins across Portland, St Mary and St Ann.

McCarthy said the gang operated across the three parishes and targeted businesses, particularly establishments with gaming or poker machines.

"There is a group that has been creating a burden right across all three parishes in Area Two. Their modus operandi is breaking into establishments, especially establishments that have poker machines. They are operating right across all three parishes," he was quoted as saying in a news story released by the police's Constabulary Communications Network (CCN).

It was indicated that McCarthy was speaking at the Police Commissioner's Area Two Town Hall Meeting.

He said members of the group were recently arrested and charged in St Ann, bringing temporary relief to communities that had experienced repeated burglaries.

McCarthy identified several members of the group, noting that some were already in custody while others remained at large and continued to be the focus of police operations.

"This is the gang that I'm telling you about that operates across all three parishes," he said, adding that John Bennett, otherwise called 'Badby', and Rolando Thomas, otherwise called 'Lando', were in custody, while other suspected members were still being pursued.

He said the Portland police took the unusual step of publishing the suspects' photographs and names on the division's Facebook page after the arrests in St Ann in an effort to alert residents to the group's alleged activities.

"What we actually did, sir, when they were arrested and charged in St Ann, was use our Facebook page in Portland to display their photographs and names because we wanted the people of Portland to know the potential threat posed by these men," McCarthy said.

He said investigators had observed a direct link between the suspects' arrests and a reduction in reported break-ins in Portland.

"For the period that SSP Russell had them in custody in St Ann, we had no break-ins in Portland. We know they are directly involved in break-ins in the parish," he said.

McCarthy said the police would continue to monitor the suspects and others believed to be involved in organised property crimes as the division intensifies intelligence-led operations to prevent commercial burglaries and dismantle criminal networks operating across parish boundaries.

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