Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas (left) responds to questions from journalists at the Operation Kingfish press conference held at his Old Hope Road office in St. Andrew, yesterday. Beside him is Assistant Commissioner Glenmore Hinds, head of Operation Kingfish. Also on display are the guns and ammunition the police say they recovered from Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett and his driver in Tanaky, Clarendon, last Sunday in an alleged shoot-out. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
OPERATION KING-FISH has revealed that several so-called area leaders and members of the business community are now under investigation as the police seek to establish their links with the $100 million empire of slain Clansman gang leader, Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Glenmore Hinds, head of Operation Kingfish, however, declined to say yesterday whether any politicians were on the list of associates linked to the notorious criminal, who had eluded the security forces for more than a decade.
The Clansman gang is associated with the governing People's National Party.
"Most of his (Bulbie's) assets were registered in the names of relatives and close associates. Up to the time of his death, he was offering services to a major housing development in a section of Spanish Town, St. Catherine," said ACP Hinds.
Responding to rumours that the nation's most wanted man was not killed, and that there was no shoot-out, ACP Hinds not only said there was a shoot-out, but that fingerprints have indicated that one of the two men killed was Mr. Bennett.
"As we speak the post mortem is being done," Hinds said.
While commending the security forces for a job well done, Commissioner Lucius Thomas said the operation was neither a 'willy nilly' nor a 'fly-by-night action'.
"The JCF conducted surveillance with its increased capabilities over many, many months, meticulously piecing the data together to build the case against Mr. Bennett," said Commissioner Thomas.
Head of the Special Anti-Crime Task Force (SACTF), Senior Superintendent Donald Pusey, who was a part of the operation, told journalists that Bennett and his associate, Nathan McDonald, were killed in the living room of the sprawling mansion, in the district of Tanaky, Clarendon, on Sunday, October 30.
AMMUNITION RECOVERED
According to reports, Mr. Bennett was told to surrender after members of the security forces had secured the perimeter of the house. The officers said they were greeted with gunfire while entering the house.
A woman who was found in a room on the second floor of the two-storey building, was still in custody yesterday, while the police continue to interrogate her. Forensic expert, Superintendent Fred Hibbert, said the Desert Eagle and 9mm Ruger handguns, along with the 100 rounds of ammunition recovered at the scene of the fatal shooting, have a street value of about US$3,500.
"The Desert Eagle is the most powerful handgun," the forensic expert said. "It uses three types of ammunition, including the .50 calibre rounds. It can use three different barrels."
