Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer

The Jamaican government is insisting that there was no assistance from the United States government in the Tivoli Gardens incursion last year May.

This morning, the National Security Minister Senator Dwight Nelson said he has checked the records at the ministry and the Jamaica Defence Force and found no request for assistance from the US.

An investigative piece in the American magazine The New Yorker has revealed that despite the Jamaican government saying otherwise, a US spy plane did in fact take surveillance imagery of Tivoli Gardens on May 24, 2010 during the security operation.

When quizzed about the issue last year, then information minister, Daryl Vaz, had denied Jamaica had received any external help.

Read Here:Department of Homeland Security Significant Incident Report

However, the Department of Homeland Security incident report and the US Drug Enforcement Authority have confirmed that the plane assisted the Jamaican government during the Tivoli operation.

It also said that the P-3 Orion passed information to US law-enforcement officers stationed at the Embassy, who provided that information to Jamaican authorities.

The Tivoli operation which happened from May 24 in 2010 was designed to capture convicted drug dealer Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke and resulted in the deaths of 74 persons.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com