Peter Espeut | The organisation of crime

Reports out of our neighbour to the northeast are troubling! Former police officer Jimmy Chérizier, alias ‘Barbecue’, leader of the Delmas 6 gang based in downtown Port-au-Prince, has brought together nine powerful rival gangs into a federation of criminality called the “G9 and Family”. The coalition allows member gangs to expand their territory and offer politicians a unified weapon with which to suppress their opposition.

Chérizier was linked to former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and his ruling Haitian Tèt Kale Party, for whom the G9 is alleged to have ensured votes and quelled social unrest in gang-controlled neighbourhoods. Several reports on Haiti have listed extortion as a main source of funding for the G9, as well as government money. After the assassination of President Moïse last year, Barbecue has called for the resignation of interim President Ariel Henry, and may be positioning himself to assume state power.

You may recall that after the assassination, several high-profile Haitians fled to Jamaica.

Criminal connections between Haiti and Jamaica have long been mooted, especially the drugs-for-guns trade. There has been an uncomfortable silence over the last few months.

I found it worrying that during the creation of Fortress Tivoli in 2010 to prevent the apprehension of Shower Posse leader Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, criminal gunmen from across Jamaica came together to take on the Jamaican security forces. On May 23, 2010, heavily armed gunmen attacked the police stations in Denham Town, Fletcher’s Land, Hannah Town, and Darling Street; the latter was burnt to the ground. This prompted a joint police/military assault on Tivoli Gardens during which at least seventy people were killed. After the incident, the gunmen returned to their corners, and there was a lull in murders.

CHALLENGE TO INTEGRITY

What this episode showed me was the potential challenge to the integrity of the Jamaican state that could result if Kingston’s criminal gangs – historically connected to political parties – ever formed a federation. This scenario is now playing out in Haiti. I believe that Jamaica’s many criminal gangs are a threat to national security, not just to human life and property.

There have long been reports of extortion in downtown Kingston and Spanish Town by criminal gangs aligned with both political parties, but I cannot recall anyone ever being charged for that offence. Over the years Dudus received government contracts to provide services, including garbage collection. He was eventually extradited to the US to face charges of drug dealing and gun running and is now in prison. Most of his associates and accomplices have so far remained anonymous.

Maybe the half has not yet been told.

And then we hear that members of the Klansman gang – allegedly aligned with the PNP – were selling land in Clifton, St Catherine, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, there was an event last month in Hague, Trelawny, reported in the media, that should have raised more than a few eyebrows.

Speaking at a press conference at the Falmouth Police Station on Sunday, October 9, commander of the Trelawny Police Division, Deputy Superintendent Winston Milton, advised that members of four criminal gangs had joined together at Hague to celebrate the birthday of the leader of the “Six” gang; he identified the gangs as “Sinners”, “One Voice”, “Six”, and the fledgling “Taliban” outfit.

CRIMINAL GROUPINGS

Superintendent Milton advised that “The event is not your regular birthday party in that we have found out that at the event [there] were a number of criminal groupings. In essence, there was proliferation of tents scattered across the grounds of the event that were properly designated with banners for specific criminal cells”.

“Among them, we saw One Sin, which we theorise was the designated area for the One Voice gang and the Sinners gang, both operating out of Hague Settlement. This is of particular concern to us because these two criminal factions are rival groupings and consistently in conflict. What we’re seeing is an amalgamation of both criminal groupings as they try to consolidate and organise themselves to perpetuate criminal activities across the space.”

One tent advertised the emerging gang known as Taliban. “Their banner was embellished with a picture of a rifle mounted on a bipod, [with] grenades and masks,” Milton told reporters at the press conference.

A joint police/military operations team went in force and shut down the party; three men in their 20s were killed, and one JDF soldier was injured. The police report that three pistols – two Taurus and a Beretta – and a total of 17 nine millimetre cartridges were seized.

I cannot believe that this coalition of Trelawny gangs is the only such in Jamaica.

Gang activity in Jamaica is increasing, and I am sure that the police and military intelligence arms know more than they are revealing. I am willing to bet that the US and UK governments know quite a bit about the gang scene in Jamaica, and about the many Mr and Mrs Biggs. I hope they are careful about whom they share their intelligence with.

Where will it all end?

What will happen to Haiti? There is talk of the United Nations deploying another peacekeeping force to deal with the gangs and to open the blockaded ports. That may only cause temporary respite, but cannot solve the gang problem, and the deeper issues of dysfunctional government and underdevelopment.

No local solution to our gang problem is in sight, nor to our parenting crisis, dysfunctional educational system and underdevelopment that supports them.

Maybe a few extradition requests for the big fish are in order?

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist? Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com