By Glenroy Sinclair,
Staff Reporter 
Merit Lewis, 36, who was deported from the USA in mid-1998 after spending a year in prison for assaulting an elderly woman. He insists he was innocent and charges that US authorities did not give him a fair hearing.- File
MORE THAN 17,000 persons have been deported to Jamaica in the past 12 years, including a record 2,529 sent back last year. The police theorise that many are involved in the spate of violent crimes being committed across the island but are unable to nail down a figure.
Between 1999 and last year the police requested, through the Supreme Court, permission to monitor 68 deportees who were deemed dangerous to society. In 2001, the police said 27 were on their list to be monitored. However, so far this year, the lawmen have not made any request to monitor any of the 266 who have so far been deported.
"There is no doubt that they are involved in crimes. Even the way some of the murders are committed, you can tell that they are involved," Assistant Commissioner Osbourne Dyer told The Gleaner yesterday. He suggested that the trend of killing and burning the bodies of people, is a method learned by criminals who were living overseas and later deported here.
"One of the problems we are encountering is that, when you arrest an individual it is difficult to tell if the person is a deportee, unless you have prior knowledge about his background," said Mr. Dyer.
Last month, the police public relations arm, the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN), released the names of several wanted men, headed by a deportee, Christopher Anthony Reid, who is wanted in connection with the December 20, 2001 killing of Desdale Heslop in Portsmouth, St. Catherine.
Head of the Narcotics Division Senior Superintendent Carl Williams has also confirmed that deportees have figured prominently in some narcotics investigations.
Of the 2,529 persons deported last year, 1,025 were drug felons, 719 were illegal aliens, 129 had false documents, 123 for wounding and assault, 121 for burglary and larceny, 103 for possession of illegal firearms and 45 for murder/manslaughter.
According to police statistics, between January 1990 and February 1, 2002, a total of 17,760 Jamaicans were deported from various countries, mainly the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Over the years, the most common offences being deported for are drugs, unauthorised stay, false documentation and murder.
"Not all of them are hardened criminals," emphasised Assist-ant Commissioner Dyer.
For example, 36-year-old Merit Lewis was deported from the state of Florida in mid-1998 after spending a year in prison for assaulting an elderly woman. He insists he was innocent and charges that US authorities did not give him a fair hearing. He is even more angry at having been sent back to Jamaica, the island home he left at the age of seven and where he had no known family connections or friends at the time of his deportation.
