Senior JDF officer due in court after Florida arrest

A senior Jamaican military officer embedded with a United States (US)-based international counter-narcotics task force is facing a criminal charge after being arrested with a person under the age of 18 inside a vehicle, according to his attorney and online arrest records.

Captain Raymond A. McLeod, 38, was arrested by the Key West Police Department in Florida on July 4.

He was initially charged with cruelty towards a child, a third-degree felony described as “abuse without great bodily injury”, and driving under the influence, a second-degree misdemeanour, according to records posted on the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office website.

However, the cruelty-to-a-child charge has since been nolle prossed, or dropped, according to the Monroe County Clerk of Court’s Office and McLeod’s attorney, Patricia Gibson.

During a brief telephone interview with The Gleaner yesterday, Gibson disclosed that her client has pleaded not guilty to the remaining charge of driving under the influence and is scheduled to appear in court on July 30.

Court records allege that the senior JDF officer had a blood-alcohol level of “0.15 or higher” at the time of his arrest.

The legal blood-alcohol limit in Florida is 0.08.

“I wasn’t there. You can read the police report,” Gibson said, when asked to provide details of the circumstances that led to McLeod’s arrest.

“That should be online as well, right where you looked and saw that one charge was nolle prossed. The police report should be there as well,” she continued, before adding, “Oh, maybe not because there was an individual under the age of 18, so it may not be public records.”

McLeod is part of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) contingent embedded with the US-led Joint Interagency Task Force South, Jamaican law-enforcement sources have revealed.

The international coalition uses a range of military assets to target air and maritime drug-trafficking operations across the Caribbean, resulting in the seizure of illegal drugs valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.

The JDF has not responded to questions submitted by The Gleaner last Wednesday.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com

The questions that were submitted include:

Is the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) aware that one of its senior officers, Major Raymond McLeod, was arrested in the United States on July 5, 2026?

If the answer to question 1 is yes, kindly disclose what action(s), if any, has been taken by the JDF relative to Major McLeod and this matter?