Chapter 4
Gangs of Jamaica
This chapter seek to examine how a culture of gang violence has tarnished the reputation of our beloved country. It has its roots forged in an unholy alliance when the two main political parties in Jamaica- caught up in the cold war hustling and the need to secure their political hegemony turned to armed gangsters in the slums of urban Jamaica .When the political hustling of the 70s and 80s were over the political aligned gangsters turned to the lucrative but illegal drug trade that extended to the urban centres of Europe and North America creating a global criminal network. Locally the alliance created garrison communities: creating safe political seats for the two main political parties. It is a tour de force of political alignment, guns, gangland, drugs, racketeering, hypermasculinity and political corruption.
The majority of Jamaicans are peaceful law abiding citizens but poverty and deprivation has made those who live above the poverty line vulnerable to gang activities and the proceeds of crime that flow from this activity. The absence of a social welfare state and the failure of the Jamaican Constabulary force to police communities on an even keel have left a vacuum that is filled by men purporting to be area leaders who take it on themselves to govern these communities from the financial proceeds of crime. Ironically these so called area leaders abuse the same citizens by sexual exploitation of women arming vulnerable unemployed men while their political directives turn a blind eye.
According to James Kerr (1997) Garrison communities are created by: (i) the development of large-scale housing schemes by the State and the location of the houses therein to supporters of the party in power; (ii) homogenisation by the dominant party activists pushing out the minority from within and guarding against invasion from outside; and (iii) the expelled setting up a squatter community. The hard core garrison communities exhibit an element of autonomy, in that they are states within a state. The Jamaican State has no authority or power except in as far as it forces are able to invade in the form of police and military raids. In the core garrison disputes have been settled, matters tried, offenders sentenced and punished, all without reference to the institutions of the Jamaican State.
Fieugora(1980) and Hamilton(2000) describes the garrison process as a political culture that extends well beyond the boundaries of the communities which have come under the tight control of politicians, their thugs, and/or local enforcers. The ability of the garrisons to do outreach work greatly enhanced their significance as it can determine the outcome of an election that they ascribe to. It has become therefore central to the corrupt electoral process where political parties seek geographical control as an electoral strategy. During the election heavy bogus voting, ballet rigging and voter intimidation is a salient feature.
Central to the garrison is the ‘don’ or area leader who receives his mandate to govern by being the most vicious or dangerous man in the community. He organise the political gangs who are often armed with M16s and AK47 assault riffles and other artilleries such as hand grenades, petrol bombs and sub-machine guns. Lines of demarcation of opposing political neighbours are clearly defined and crossing the border or invading their opponent’s territory is often marked by a vicious reprisal that may include the killing of children, close relatives and close family members of their opposition. Criminal gangs tend to identify themselves with particular garrison communities and remain affiliated or aligned to their particular party. During the election period they surface as perpetrators of political violence and promote election malpractices. Entry and exit to and from these communities are controlled by the so-called “top ranking” and gang leaders who have close relationships with the constituency Member of Parliament, get preferential access to contracts and jobs and function as key elements of the local level community political leadership in both parties in these inner city poor areas. Outside of financing their activities by the strategic alliance that they form with the Member of Parliament they finance their lifestyle by extorting businesses and drug dealing. In recent times well meaning politicians have recognised that the process of driving a wedge between themselves and these political thugs is a risky and dangerous undertaking. Ex-member of parliament had to resign her seat in a St Catherine constituency where the late Donovan “Bulby” Bennett a PNP don and enforcer wreaked havoc on her political workers because she refuse to collude with his request for her to dole out state resources to him.
Karl Walker a staff reporter of the Jamaica Observer upon the death of Bulby gave a chilling account of his ruthless reign and how he was shielded by other politicians within her party leaving her exposed.Bulbie a former leader of the infamous Spanish tow Clans Man gang was a political don who was an honcho man of her party representative Clinton Jingles Davey in a neighbouring constituency during the 1993 general election. A jingle was unseated by the incumbent Member of Parliament and current Prime Minister Bruce Golding who won handsomely. Heather Robinson won her constituency for the PNP and Bulby Davies head honcho and his cronies attached themselves to Heather Robinsons team and began to make several demands.Bulby intimidating demands reached an high water mark when he summoned Heather Robinson to a meeting at her own constituency office and announced that he intended to kill all the political dons in the area aligned to the PNP.He announced that he wanted to be the only Don in Spanish Town
Out of concern for her party supporters Heather Robinson called upon her political colleague ‘Jingles’ to reign in ‘Bulby ’.She was met with a cold response from ‘Jingles’ after that meeting ‘Bulby’ and his cronies proceeded to murdered Eccleston in a gun battle at De La Vega City a strong man of Heather Robinson constituency. The at tack was a chilling episode in which bulby was reported to personal walk over to the wounded Eccles ton and reigned bullets on him in a fit of anger and vengeance.Bulbies three co- accomplice were convicted but Bulby remained at large killing Heather Robinsons party workers like flies. Robinson sought help from her reluctant colleagues within the PNP but it fell on deaf ears.
In an act of desperation Robinson made an impassionate plea in parliament calling on her colleagues to dismantle the power base that gave support to ruthless dons. Instead of coming to her assistance the PNP inner circle remained silent and outside of parliament they ostracised and treated her like a traitor accusing her of being a traitor and blaming her of embarrassing the party publicly. Within week of her famous speech in parliament where she famously declare that she was unable to give birth to Political Dons ,--she isolated but brave heather Robinson resigned from the PNP in 1996 arted burying a number of her party workers who died as a result of her principled stance
‘Bulby’ continued to wreak havoc as head of the Clans Man Gang. By the same token he became the benefactor of a number of government contracts fronted by other people while on the Police Most wanted list he was reported to having eyes and ears in the corrupt Jamaican Police Force. Finally on the 30th of June 2005 ‘Bulby’ was cornered in a police raid at a luxurious house that he owned and was reported to have been killed in a shoot out with the Jamaican Police. He died clutching an expensive .50 desert eagle pistol a large quantity of cash and Jewellery was found in his house. He was estimated to Value JA 100 Million at the time of his death. Following his death his cronies rained bullets on the Spanish Town Police Station and burned T shirt with the image of the former PNP national security minister Dr Peter Phillips in open defiance. ‘Bulbie’
was buried in an expensive glass casket in a manner befitting to his gangster status.
Bulbys activities raised the bar above the mark of shame left on the PNP by the infamous Duo Burry Boy and Feather Mop. They were both instrumental in handing the late Michael Manley his electoral success in the newly formed Central Kingston Constituency in the 1976 general election. They held their base in Concrete Jungle man were the leader of a PNP aligned gang that rode Honda motor cycles and wreaked havoc on JLP supporters and creating mischief with JLP supporters at Gordon House .They were also reported in 1975 to vandalise the JLP retirement Road headquarters stabbing a 70 year old watchman and wounding a research officer. They benefited from political contracts. As a reward for their political contribution they were rewarded with a trip in the Prime Ministers famous trip to Cuba because of their political strongman ship. ‘Burry Boy’ a Rastafarian embarrassed the party leader at a reception held by Fidel Castro in his honour by throwing a tirade and kicking over the tables laid with pork.
‘Burry Boy’ was killed by a lone assassin before the 1976 election while ‘Feather Mop was’ murdered in a reprisal killing of a civil servant who began querying a questionable payment made out to him for a government contract in 1975.
Hamilton (2000) rightly observes that after the bitter elections of the seventies and eighties a new avenue of increasing their income was to extend their activities to drug dealing. The war on drugs promoted by the Regan Administration created an impact on the South American drug trade and the port of transhipment directly into North America was cut off using Jamaica strategic alternative as a transhipment port. In addition the ganja eradication programme under the Seaga administration dented the revenues of local Ganja smugglers. An alliance was forged with the Columbian drug cartel and by the early nineties Jamaica became a major transhipment port to North America and Europe. The massive drug finds on the National Airline together with vicious murders that were committed by political aligned gangsters caused the politicians to distance themselves publicly from these notorious gangsters- who continue to attract the attention of the US drug enforcement agency and law enforcement agencies in Canada and Europe.
The picture I have painted may give the impression that all persons living in those political areas are involved in crime. That is not so, as there are a number of law abiding citizens who are able to live along side this violence and achieve success through legal means. It must be said that the perpetrators and law abiding share the same physical environment and for the most part, are wards of poverty deprivation and trapped circumstances. Hence they are also victims and as a consequence experience external prejudice and social exclusion. One of the main things that they come up against is branding that sets them back and excludes them from social institutions. Branding includes the following: (a) retaliation from areas of supposed differing party affiliation, (b) victimisation by employer’s averse to violence prone areas or themselves politically biased, (c) political and economic victimisation should their party not from the government, an immediate risk of losing projects in progress when their party loses and, not least, the general deterioration of market values in real property within these areas.
Gang affiliation is closely linked to the garrisons. However there are a few gangs that are independent of garrisons. These gangs are self-financed usually with the proceeds of drug sales. Being a member of a gang is not a complex undertaking in Jamaica as there are a number of unemployed youths in the urban cities frustrated and are vulnerable to being recruited because of financial reasons. Gang membership also offers status and inclusion and fills the void of young males who were raised by their mothers. With their fathers missing from their homes, gang membership provides the role of filling the void of their missing fatherhood – hence the “fatherless crew”. For children who grew up without a father figure, a gang leader usually also called “Dads” represent a father figure that they miss growing up without during their formative years. Without joining a gang they are vulnerable to external gangs, therefore gang membership acts as a buffer and protection from neighbouring assailants. In the word of machismo gang membership safeguards its members from being branded as feminine and soft. For most unemployed youths in the inner cities, gang membership is the only game in town. Already, as described above, there address is a hindrance to them gaining employment. Moreover, those who offer employment are cautious to give jobs to inner city men out of fear of being ripped off or for plain discriminatory reasons. In Jamaica the gang culture is constantly evolving and taking traction in all 14 parishes. Out of a population of nearly 2.7million people, 800,000 live on squatters settlements dotted across the island.
Gang membership is a collective response to the twin evils of unemployment and social deprivation. It carries with it its own unique culture and symbols that is dynamic and takes on board other aspects of the Jamaican culture such as the dance hall movement. Central to this merger are its main chair leaders, male deejays who through their lyrics glorify guns, endorse violence and debauchery. Hence deejays like Movado and Vibes Cartel are revered by gangsters and gangsters ‘wannabees’ both locally and internationally. Their music endorses their activity and deviant lifestyles. Their lyric accompanied by slick beats and famous duels is considered as a recruiting tool for the young and vulnerable alluring them into the gangster’s paradise. Ace deejay Movado has done a popular song called Gangster for Life extolling the virtues of murder and gang bang glorification. This song has now become an anthem for gangsters both in Jamaica and in the Diasporas. Vibes Cartel’s song Come inner mi Ramping Shop is an ex-rated song laced with sexual innuendos, popularised by school children. This drew heavy criticisms from the press and had to be banned from the air-waves by the major radio stations in Jamaica. The mixture of gangsterism and dancehall has served up an unsavoury concoction that is played out in a dramatic saga. Dances are no longer a place for “lovely dovey” people. A typical gangster party is one in which the men decked with heavy gold chains hanging from their necks accompanied by the wearing of expensive designer clothes. At the gangster balls they confine themselves to one side of the dance floor drinking hennesy and champagne whilst the women on the other side dressed in skimpy outfits with their body parts hanging out dancing under the video light in an ex-rated manner. Rub- a-dub is no longer the standard, as ‘skinning out’ and debauchery is the current standard. During birthdays and gangster celebrity parties, bottles of champagne are used to bathe the host or hostess in a manner that beggars belief as wealth and proceeds from drugs activities are splashed out to show power, Wealth, supremacy and bravado.
Badness “honour” is an essential quality that is necessary to lead a vicious gang. This is achieved by the degree of wickedness or the callous manner in which the gangster slays his victims. This is a wicked type of hyper-masculinity that is cold and blood-curdling. As culture is not static, the labels, narratives and symbols of the Jamaican gangland are continually responding to contemporary trends. In the 1960s to 1970s gangsters were called “rude boys”. The 1980s and 1990s they were regarded as “bad men”. By the turn of the century they regarded themselves as “Shotters” and the current trend is to adorn them with the title of “Gangster for Life” - heaven knows what’s next.
It is important at this stage to mention a new method of financing gang activity that has it roots in the Lottery Scam that emerged out of the second city of Jamaica that is famous for its tourism product. In June 2005 Adrian Frater the Gleaner news editor from Montego Bay broke the news that several Montego Bay communities were awash with millions of dollars from s scheme by which illegally obtained personal data were used to con American citizenzens .Alluring them to send money as processing fees to the local fraudsters who had fooled them into believing that they had won the lottery. By December 2006 a worried Lynda Longford an Operations Manager of a major E-commerce company in the city told a Gleaners editors forum that the e-fraud component of the scam was negatively impacting on their operations and their overseas partners were threatening to pull out of Jamaica and that this would result in the loss of 140 jobs. On the back of her utterance two corrupt police officers were arrested in connection with stealing Jamaican $97,000.00 from persons involved in the lottery scam.
By 2007 the scam heightened and several young millionaires averaging 24 years sprang up in communities such as Mount Salem and Granville. The money is used to buy luxury cars champagne parties and funded the purchasing of automatic guns and ammunitions from Haiti these guns are used for protection and reprisal killings. The police linked about eighty murders directly related to the lotto scam. The reprisal killings were related to disagreement about the sharing of the money, extortion and robberies, jealousy and rivalry between communities.The scam is estimated to pull in US 30 Million dollars per year and the shady activity is gaining momentum.
The upsurge in crime and violence was so disturbing to the extent that Operation Kingfish an arm of the security force in Jamaica assembled to track gun trafficking and gang activities raided the Montego Bay communities in February of 2007.The elite Jamaican crime fighters arrested 32 persons, seized a million dollars in cash, nine luxury motor cars, and several mobile phones and computer equipment.
At a post operation press conference Assistant Commissioner Less Green a former Scotland Yard British Police Superintendent was spot on with his assessment that although the raid was successful it was just the tip of the iceberg as the major players were still at large. In October of the same year a 72 year old New Jersey pensioner identified as Anne Mowle committed suicide after she was reportedly fleeced of her life savings of US $284,000 by a Jamaican fraudster. Another pensioner was fleeced of US $445,000 in November of the same year. This prompted a team of local police to travel to the USA to interview other victims of the illegal scam. The police party co-opted intelligence gathering on their visit and a joint partnership mission was establish with their US counterparts in order to thwart the fraudsters. Through a joint effort with US and Jamaican Police in April 2008 a 28 year old Jamaican man was jailed after a US 10 million dollar cheque that was being sent to a police agent posing as victim was intercepted.
The scam continued unabated despite the intervention of the police the local con artist known as “diallers” are now a fixture of the countries gangland activities although Montego Bay is the epicentre of the activity it has expanded to other parts of the Island such as Mandeville and Negril.
In 2009 I travelled to Jamaica to gather information on the activity in the month of March that preceded my visit eleven persons were murdered in the parish of ST James as a result of reprisals and counter reprisals linked to the scam. I knew that the process to investigate first hand about the scam was a risky undertaking but the story was too alluring to resist. I prepared my visit by making contact with a very influential person in Montego Bay who promised me to arrange an interview with an interesting player in the lottery scam. While there I was introduced to a member of the notorious stone crusher gang who offered to speak to me with the proviso that I would not record the conversation or photo graph him. He met me for a lunch meeting at a famous restaurant in the city of Montego Bay Jamaica. The meeting got off to a shaky start but he began to open up to me after having a few drinks of hennesy
.Mr X for the sake of anonymity spoke in deep Jamaican patois .He told me that he grew up in the green pond area with a single parent who paid for his education by a combination of dancing and doing odd jobs for her family. At the age of 14 he dropped out of a private high school in Montegobay due to truanting and erratic school attendance. His mother met in a traffic accident shortly after and in a bid to keep his three other brothers in school he joined a gang and began committing robberies to put food on his table. The ferocity with which he conducted his robberies earned him an invitation in 2006 to join the notorious Stone crusher gang by a colleague from the district of Granville whom he had met while being remanded in prison for a case of robbery and illegal possession of firearm. The same year he was acquitted from the case as result of the witness not turning up for. Upon his release he was invited by his crony whom he met on remand who was released on bail but absconded to join the gang.
The gang activities extended to extortion and protecting the lucrative Lottery scam that started in the gay community in Montero Bay but gained traction with a number of young savvy Cornwall collage graduates who once worked in the e-commerce trade at Mont ego Bay Freeport. The gang muscled in on the trade by providing protection service for a number of big wigs in the trade who supplied them with guns and ammunition bought from Hati.When asked how they came in possession of such high powered weapons he told me that the boss that he worked for chartered a speed boat to Haiti loaded with Ganja and meat astonishingly he remarked that the Haitians loved donkey meat and it was a part of the cargo- guided by sophisticated GPS systems that met the Haitians of the coast of Haiti in exchange for high powered weapons and ammunition. These high powered weapons were smuggled in at night on a sleepy St Elizabeth costal town and transported by road to Montego Bay where the cargo is distributed to gangsters.
When asked about his personal involvement with the gang he said light heartedly: mi meck a few duppies along the way but a suh the game goh. When translated in English it means that he has murdered a few persons along the way but that’s a part of the game. He explained that his duties involved escorting money from the cam bios to the boss house, getting rid of extortionist and performing hits on the bosses’ enemies. He said what made the Stone crusher Gang so famous was their ability not only to be ferocious but to have the better weapons than the other Mont ego Bay Gangs and the local police.
On the subject of the police he told me that he was not afraid of the local Mont ego Bay police as most of them were corrupt and that he personally has seen a lot of them turning up at the boss house for money. He however was afraid of a police squad from Kingston whom he referred to as “king fish”. Operation King Fish is an elite core of police officers based in Kingston whose remit is to track criminal gangs in Jamaica. When asked to quantify the gains that he achieved from the gang he told me that about four million dollars had passed trough his hands over the past two years. He was able to buy a car in his uncle’s name and set up a market stall for his mother but he had “flossed” out the rest of money on women as he expects to die anytime.
As I was abut to delve further into the murky involvement of the Mont ego Bay police involvement in the scam his mobile telephone rang and he answered it his countenance changed from that of an angel to a devil , he immediately gulped down his drink and said “ English mi wi si yuh mi have a pussy fi go kill”. This translates in English I have to leave now because I have to kill some one to kill it could mean literally or is often used in Jamaican term to express that he is involved in a feud to settle with some one. Whatever his parting words were meant I was astonished at the full breath of the discussion that we had on my return to my hotel I reflected on what he had told me and inscribed it in my note book with a mixture of astonishment and trepidation.
On my return to London I received information from my Mont ego Bay source that Mr X boss was arrested by the police and a large quantity of cash and computer and mobile phones were seized during a raid by the police. I have been reliably informed by my source that Mr X is still at large. The Jamaica Observer and The Gleaner Newspaper confirmed that the Jamaican Police Commissioner had retired ten police men from the Mount Salem police Station in the public interest-it is alleged that their corrupt activities were associated in part with the lottery scam. The Director of Public Prosecution whose office examined statements pertaining to their corrupt activities was unable to press charges against them due to a lack of evidence however she directed that departmental discipline be taken against them. Meanwhile the Lottery scam continues the US Postal service has put out a fraud alert informing its citizens to be aware of this unsavoury activity as unsuspecting American victims continue to be fleeced of their life savings.
By the nineteen eighties the Jamaican gang land had extended its influence to the urban centres of North America and Europe and had gained a massive foothold on the crack cocaine trade in the markets of North America and Europe.
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