Editorial | Whatever happened to MOCA?

A notable absence from Horace Chang’s statement to Parliament last week on the performance of his ministry was any significant mention of the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA).

Dr Chang alluded to MOCA twice: once to list the 2018 passage of the legislation to establish it as an independent investigative and law enforcement agency as one of the significant actions by the Holness administration to address Jamaica’s problem of crime and security; the second was to note that MOCA’s director general sits as a member of the oversight body for the social intervention programmes implemented by the national security ministry in communities designated as zones of special operations (ZOSOs).

Dr Chang said nothing about MOCA’s performance as an investigative and law enforcement body, but spoke extensively of the successful transformation which he said was being achieved in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), leading to significant reduction in crime.

“The strengthening of the JCF involves a holistic transformation programme, which is in full gear and proceeding at a good pace,” said the national security minister.

If Dr Chang experienced a temporary bout of forgetfulness with respect to MOCA, he is unlikely to have been the only one. Many might have only been jogged into remembrance and to question whether it is still functional by the minister’s fleeting observations.

So, whatever happened to MOCA, anyway?

MOCA was established a decade ago through the merger of two police units, the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Task Force and Anti-Corruption Branch, as an elite organisation to investigate certain kinds of crime, including internal police corruption, which it was felt that the JCF sucked at.

“The current National Security Policy (NSP) identified, like many reports over the past decade, that crime and corruption are the principal obstacles to Jamaica’s growth and development,” the then national security minister, Peter Bunting, said at the time. “The NSP also recognised a common misconception that the way to make progress against organised crime is to disrupt specific forms of criminal activity, e.g., narcotics trafficking.

“However, that traditional approach does not allow for the flexibility and adaptability demonstrated by successful career criminals, who have been adept at identifying and moving into new areas of criminal activity. Career criminals are in the business of making money, so the only way to permanently reduce the level of crime is to ‘take the profit out of crime’ – the first key reform/recommendation from the NSP.”

The sense was that MOCA would be Jamaica’s version of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

OPERATED INDEPENDENTLY

While MOCA’s operatives remained officially members of the policy force, the agency, headed by a former Jamaica Defence Force (JCF) colonel, Desmond Edwards, operated independently. They were vigorously vetted, including undergoing polygraph tests, before being let into the agency.

The agency’s independence as a stand-alone investigative body, with powers of search, arrest and prosecutorial authority, was affirmed in the 2018 law that listed among its mandate undertaking “efficient and effective activities to combat serious crime, whether by itself or in collaboration with strategic partners and law enforcement agencies, whether in or outside Jamaica”. These strategic partners include the JCF, the finance ministry’s Financial Investigative Division (FID), the army, the director of public prosecutions (DPP), the tax authorities, Customs and the Integrity Commission (IC).

For the current fiscal year (April 2024 to March 2025), Parliament voted MOCA J$1.033 billion (J$1.045 the previous year) to “disrupt and dismantle tier-1 threats to national security, which include organised crime and public sector corruption”.

Specifically listed among the programmes to which money is to be spent are the “detect(ion), investigation and prosecution of corrupt members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force”, “dismantling major organised crime networks and targeting and confront corruption in the public sector”.

MOCA’s budget for its tasks is 13 per cent of the J$7.9 billion (12 per cent of overall the force’s overall expenditure) allocated to the JCF’s crime management programme, which includes funding for its Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime (C-TOC) unit, its intelligence services and regulation investigation support.

OVERLAPS

Clearly, as is the case in other countries with multiple specialised investigative agencies, there are overlaps between MOCA’s mandate and those of other bodies, like the JCF and the Integrity Commission. In those circumstances, the best outcomes are likely to result from the coordination of effort, or a dedicated party’s aggressive pursuance of its mandate when others appear to lack the energy, or will, to do so.

Early in its life MOCA was especially visible, with regular announcements, including video footage, of drug busts and its arrests of so-called scammers. These days, it isn’t quite as conspicuous or publicly voluble, although, based on its published performance data, it appeared in 2023 to have arrested and charged 20 people for various crimes, including five in the category of major organised crime. However, the agency in public reports doesn’t provide a deeper analysis of these arrests and charges, especially in the context of its mandate. That detail is perhaps contained in other unpublished documents.

While MOCA still enjoys a strong reputation for integrity, it doesn’t appear to have had a major, or sustained haul, of the ‘big fish’ in organised crime and corruption, either in the public or private sectors.

Heading into the agency’s 10th anniversary Colonel Edwards should have a frank public dialogue about its mandate and achievements. Obviously, there is information that the public won’t be privy to; it may have unrealistic expectations; or it may be that it’s just missing the facts. Colonel Edward’s should explain.