Lawmen ready to squash any flare-up of crime in St James
Published:Friday | March 7, 2025 | 12:08 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Local law enforcement is vowing that significant gains made in crime fighting in St James will not be eroded by anyone even as they monitor responses to the United States (US) arrest of and immigration hold on Montego Bay native and popular entertainer Squash.
The Big Breeze deejay, whose given name is Andrae Maurice Whittaker, was arrested on February 24 during a traffic stop in Miami, Florida, which was later revealed to be coordinated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which linked the entertainer to illegal weapons.
Senior Superintendent Eron Samuels, head of the St James Police Division, speaking on the development that he acknowledged could have implications in western Jamaica, said, “We are indeed paying attention ... and we are watching keenly to see the outcome.”
The entertainer is from Salt Spring in St James, one of the areas in which the police have seen numerous murders and shootings over the years but have managed to regain some amount of control with representatives of warring factions either jailed, killed, or displaced through migration.
“We will not allow anyone to pull back the gains we have made over the period, and we will ensure that we continue towards our target of below 100 murders,” Samuels said.
Whittaker reportedly left Jamaica in 2019 but was detained in the island earlier for an extended period in 2018, during a yearlong state of emergency in St James, while the division recorded upwards of 200 murders.
DENIED PERMITS
The entertainer was released without charge but remained under the microscope of the police so much so that events featuring the chart-topping artiste were denied permits.
The St James Police Division has, in recent years, consistently led the country with murders, finishing 2023 with 188 homicides. Last year, though recording a reduction of 33.5 per cent, the division topped all others with 125 murders.
During the first two months of this year, only seven murders have been recorded in St James, a drop of 73 per cent when compared to the 26 at the end of February 2024.
Shootings are also down 56 per cent since the start of the year.
Members of the business community, including the St James Chamber of Commerce, have recently been in the media, stating that they approve of the work of the security forces in bringing some semblance of crime control back to the parish.
Whittaker’s most recent legal woes in the US began during last week’s arrest along with 24-year-old Zidanne George Prescott, the driver of the grey Mercedes-Benz involved in the Miami Beach traffic stop.
US arrest documents obtained by The Gleaner indicate that police officers approaching the vehicle reportedly saw Whittaker, who was in the passenger seat, placing a black object into a stash box.
The men reportedly agreed to a search of the vehicle, during which a Glock 19 firearm, with ‘Chip Glock’ modification, was unearthed.
The ‘Chip Glock’, which the deejay is know to sing about, is a small device that can be attached to the rear of the slide of a Glock handgun, changing the semi-automatic pistol into a selective fire machine pistol.
An empty inside holster was reportedly discovered on the entertainer’s waistband.
Additionally, authorities recovered a Glock 35 .40 calibre pistol with an extended magazine under the driver’s seat, along with three loaded magazines in different compartments of the vehicle.
Prescott was found to have a suspended driver’s licence at the time of the incident.
Both men were arrested and charged accordingly. The arrest was captured on body-worn cameras.
Whittaker was released from police custody after posting a US$3,000 bond but remains detained on an immigration hold by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
He is currently being held at the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida, according to the ICE website.
He is set to appear in court on March 26 at 9:15 a.m.
Squash is already facing immigration issues as he has been accused of not have legal status in the country and was awaiting an immigration hearing.
NEEDS A BREAK
Five years ago, before he left Jamaica, during an Onstage interview with Winford Williams, the entertainer said publicly that he wanted to live a free life.
“Mi wah live a free life like everybody else ... . We a do music, and I want the JDF (Jamaica Defence Force) and the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) fi know we nah give no trouble. A music we a do, and we a focus pon music. So mi ask the JDF and the bigger man dem fi please have some mercy pon di yute dem weh want fi make it for dem family and give we a break, give me a break, Squash Six Boss Andrae Whittaker a break because me nah give no trouble ... . Me feel targeted,” Whittaker said at the time.
In another interview in July 2022 on the same platform and while on US soil, Whittaker professed his love for his home country and said he stayed away from Jamaica because “foreign big” and there was “too much corruption in one little environment”.
Said Whittaker: “To how the system did a deal wid me, mi affi tek weh miself. And even when me tek weh miself, as unuh can see, mi name still a scandal all over the place, ‘Six Boss this, Six Boss that’ ... . Mi a nuh violence producer ... a love alone mi preach to the whole a di yute dem,” Whittaker said.
The entertainer, no stranger to the top of the dancehall charts, has recently trended on the music scene with songs like Big Breeze, Shubout, All Now and Get Up.