Dexter Street gang main witness refused police protection – JCF

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is reporting that the prosecution’s main witness in the Dexter Street gang trial refused police protection.

Nineteen alleged members of the Westmoreland-based gang were yesterday freed after the case collapsed; this after the prosecution entered a nolle prosequi suspending the matter indefinitely. 

The alleged gangsters - 15 males and four females - were charged for breaches of the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organisations) Act 2014, commonly referred to as the anti-gang legislation.

“The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) would like to make it abundantly clear that solid police work was done in the preparation of the case against,” a police spokesperson said in a statement this morning.

“We would like to also make it clear that every effort was made by the police to have the individual placed under the Witness Protection Programme. However, despite our best efforts, the individual resisted police protection and eventually disappeared altogether,” the spokesperson added.

The reputed gangsters have allegedly been linked to nearly 40 murders in western Jamaica since 2016. 

In 2018, The Gleaner reported that the police believed that a shipment of 19 guns intercepted at the Kingston Container Terminal on November 17, 2017 was destined for the gang. 

The weapons and nearly 4,000 assorted rounds of ammunition were found in two freezers at the port.

The spokesperson said the constabulary force is undaunted in the fight against gang violence and organised crime and confident that justice will be delivered in the 12 major gang-related cases currently before the courts.

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