St Catherine police nab suspected goat thieves
Published:Sunday | January 30, 2022 | 10:36 AM
Rasbert Turner/Gleaner Writer
Three suspected goats thieves have been jailed in St Catherine after they were intercepted by the police last evening.
The police say about 6:15 p.m., cops from Guy's Hill, acting on intelligence, intercepted a Toyota Axio motor car in Waterford district.
The three men were detained after reportedly being unable to account for goats that were on the rear passenger seat.
For months, there has been sustained goat theft in Guy's Hill and neighbouring communities.
"A nuff people goat thief lef' crying," Devon Brown, a Guy's Hill resident, said.
"Sometimes, you will lef' di goat dem fi feed. When you come fi carry dem home, it's just piece of rope lef' and sometimes dem take everything."
Charles Chambers, a taxi driver plying a route in Guy's Hill, said there seems to be a ready market for stolen livestock.
Chevon, or goat meat, can fetch up to $1,100 per pound.
He suspects thieves from outside the area are getting inside help from persons in the community.
"You can hardly catch the culprits," he lamented.
The Praedial Larceny Prevention Unit improved its arrests by 80 per cent up to the end of 2020, but those pale in comparison to the breadth of the scourge.
An estimated $6 billion in produce and livestock is stolen annually.
In June 2021, then Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green endorsed the amendment of the anti-gang legislation including praedial larceny as organised crime.
The theft of cattle and the killing of livestock may lead to prison sentences of up to 20 years.
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