Senior cops targeted in cocaine probe

Nearly a dozen high-ranking policemen and soldiers are the targets of a widening narcotics investigation linked to the seizure of cocaine from a police storage facility in January, which has drawn the attention of Jamaica’s international law-enforcement partners, sources have disclosed.

According to the sources, the investigation has been expanded to determine whether law-enforcement personnel significantly under-reported the quantity of cocaine seized during an operation in western Jamaica months earlier.

Two “illegal” parcels of cocaine were found inside a storage facility at the since-disbanded Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Division (C-TOC) in January, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) disclosed in a statement, citing the findings of an internal audit.

The incident triggered an immediate high-level investigation and, weeks later, the division tasked with dismantling organised criminal syndicates in Jamaica was gutted by Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake, with the more than 40 policemen and women assigned there transferred to other divisions.

The investigation spilled into the public domain yesterday when agents from the Major Organised and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) conducted an early-morning search operation at the St Andrew home of a senior officer who was assigned to C-TOC, according to multiple sources.

The senior officer was transported in handcuffs to two other locations in St Andrew and Clarendon, where searches were also conducted, sources revealed.

The search operations were expected to continue overnight into today at locations linked to other suspects.

“Our external partners are down our backs on this one,” a top law-enforcement operative toldThe Gleanerlast night.

MOCA confirmed late Wednesday that its agents were engaged in a series of operations to execute “search and seizure warrants at a number of locations across the Corporate Area as part of an on-going investigation”.

However, Major Basil Jarrett, director of communications at MOCA, declined to divulge information about the investigation and the operations.

“Due to the sensitive nature of the investigations and today’s operations, I am unable to divulge any additional details, except to say that the public will be apprised of more as soon as we are in a position to safely and responsibly do so,” Jarrett toldThe Gleaner.

The audit of the storage facility at C-TOC was triggered by the arrest of Police Inspector Martin Walker, who was also assigned to C-TOC, the JCF said in a statement issued in January.

It was alleged that a quantity of cocaine was found in Walker’s private vehicle during an operation on January 8.