Smokey Vale raid
Published:Monday | June 21, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Patrina Pink, Gleaner Intern
The security forces pounced on three palatial homes in the upscale Smokey Vale neighbourhood of St Andrew yesterday in their bid to hunt down criminals ensconced in high-priced hideouts.
The massive police-military operation, which began about 7 a.m., was the latest raid on the hilly havens of suspected criminals, even as the manhunt for Jamaica's No. 1 fugitive, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, continues.
A Gleaner news team counted more than 50 exhausted-looking lawmen - mainly heavily armed soldiers - who had just finished combing the properties at midday.
No illegal weapons
Although the search yielded no illegal weapons, one woman and seven men were detained and a Toyota Prado sport utility vehicle seized.
The police refused to confirm or deny whether any of the three multimillion-dollar homes that were searched were owned by Coke, who has been on the run since the Labour Day incursion into his Tivoli Gardens stronghold.
Inspector Steve Brown, head of the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) - the police's information agency - denied that the operation was linked to Coke.
However, Brown told The Gleaner that the sting was part of the thrust to "break up criminal networks, no matter where they are". The CCN chief said the armed forces would not confine their searches to the raiding of Kingston slums but would be "going into any upscale community to break up these criminal networks".
Since the hunt for Coke - who is wanted on gun and drug charges in the United States - was launched, the security forces have led raids on communities ranging from Portmore, St Catherine, and Kirkland Heights and Plantation Heights, St Andrew, to Mandeville, Manchester, and St Mary.
In one of the Kirkland Heights operations, 63-year-old businessman Keith Clarke was shot dead in controversial circumstances.
The policemen and soldiers involved in Clarke's death have since been taken off front-line duty.