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55 people had been murdered in the parish of St James. Most of the victims were annihilated by the gun. Most of them were young men. Most of them hailed from so-called squatter or informal settlements. And most of them were killed by persons in their own age group. This is a most frightening scenario that is not being sufficiently addressed by the powers that be. Why? I will continue to hold the cynical view that as long as these killings do not directly affect the tourism sector or the top echelons of the society, then nothing worthwhile is likely to happen. Indeed, as one fed-up cop told me recently, "Boss, might as well dem keep killing off one annoder. Less work for us and the courts." Add a few extra-judicial killings by the security forces to this sordid picture and it becomes clear that St James is fast becoming a wild, wild West neighbourhood.There was a time when people from rural Jamaica were afraid to go to Kingston. Persons living in Kingston looked forward to com...

Owen 'Father Fowl' Clarke, reputed millionaire, cocaine-dealing leader of the British Link-up crew, who was described by the judge who sentenced him as one of the most dangerous men in England.There was Vivian Blake who ran the Shower Posse in the States during the 1980s and 1990s with a three-tiered organisational structure that the Mafia would have been proud of. In fact, the name 'don' (a Spanish term denoting rank and authority) draws on the idea of the mafia don. Early dons, were Claudius 'Claudie' Massop and Aston 'Bucky' Marshall who came to prominence in the 1970s as a result of the birth of political garrisons and signalled don-man influence on the Jamaican voters.Scott. was found in a big plastic bag buried near a tree What is common among most dons is that they all become extremely wealthy, by international standards, and have a major influence on our culture. Remember Donald "Zekes" Phipps? Recall the millions in cash he had lying a...

Men from the One Order gang are warring over extortion money ... It started about a week-and-a half ago when a group of men from the gang went and collected money from the sites without informing the other members," an officer from the St Catherine North Division explained. One high-ranking member of the gang denied the claims when contacted yesterday. "No man! Nuttin like that. Wi nuh have no internal thing a gwaan, di whole a wi good," he stated simply. However, the St. Catherine North police have linked at least two recent incidents to the squabble, the latest being the murder of a carpenter on Sunday. Vivian Douglas, 43, of Tredegar Park in the parish, was shot dead on Sunday in a section of that community. Police say about 8 a.m., Douglas was attacked by a group of gunmen as he walked through a dirt track on his way to a hardware store. The men opened fire, killing him on the spot. The police say Douglas was employed to one of the work sites from which the gang coll...

Jamaica Police are reporting that a significant dent has been made in the number of drug mule gangs smuggling narcotics out of the country. Statistics from the Narcotics Division show that the number of drug mules arrested last year fell by 19 per cent when compared with the figure for 2006. "Throughout 2007 we arrested a total of 5,496 persons for drugs, a significant reduction from the 6,793 persons arrested in 2006," Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, Carlton Wilson disclosed. The Acting ACP, who heads the Narcotics Division, pointed out that of the persons arrested, 5,257 were Jamaicans, with 4,927 being males and 330 females. Foreign males and females accounted for 174 and 65 arrests, respectively. Britons accounted for 119, Americans 51 and Canadians 22. According to Wilson, of the 6,793 drug mules arrested in 2006, 6,039 were Jamaican males and 403 were females. Foreign males accounted for 257 and females 94. Meanwhile, he explained that 171 persons were arrested...