FID delivers 8 forfeited vehicles to CTOC

Eight motor vehicles forfeited under the Proceeds of Crime Act have been handed over to the Jamaica Constabulary Force to boost the operational capacity of its anti-organised crime and financial investigations units.

The vehicles were handed over on Thursday by the Financial Investigations Division (FID) to the JCF's Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime (CTOC) branch, following the successful prosecution of cases involving breaches of POCA, the FID said 

The vehicles, now forfeited to the Crown, will support operations within CTOC, including the Constabulary Financial Unit and the Firearms and Narcotics Investigation Division (FNID).

According to the FID, six of the vehicles were seized in fraud-related matters, one in a corruption case, and one linked to cybercrime. Their combined estimated market value is approximately $7.4 million.

Principal Director of Financial Crimes Investigations at the FID, Keith Darien, said asset recovery serves both as a deterrent and a practical benefit to law enforcement, noting that recovered assets serve as a deterrent and a practical benefit to law enforcement.

“This handover is a clear example of how our collaboration with the JCF is multi-layered, to include investigations, prosecutions, and recovery that can translate into real operational support for CTOC," he said in the FID statement.

"When the public supports the FID and our partner law enforcement agencies in combating crime, the country benefits. Even at a modest scale, asset recovery can reduce pressure on government resources by returning the proceeds of crime to strengthen the crime-fighting Machinery. This is what it looks like to remove the benefit from crime.”

Senior Superintendent Patrae Rowe, director of the FNID said the vehicles "will strengthen our operational mobility and will ....allow for quicker and more responsive action without diverting already burdened police resources that could be used otherwise." 

"This handover demonstrates what coordinated law enforcement can achieve: assets linked to criminality are recovered through due process and redirected into public safety. It's a tangible example of partnership in action..," he said. 

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