Tweet
Police are blaming members of corner gangs in Torrington Park, one of several inner-city communities in Kingston, for last week’s deadly attack in which a mother and her seven-year-old daughter were shot and their bodies burnt.
Forty-seven-year-old Maureen Bennett and her seven-year-old daughter, Damone Skyers, are the latest victims in the ongoing gang war. Another deadly attack one week ago at a house owned by the mother of jailed alleged gang leader Joe Benbow, left a 67-year-old senior citizen dead.
Members of Torrington Park corner gang are mostly young boys between 11 and 15 years old, which characterises the composition of criminal gangs now driving the crime rate, investigators say.
Recent research on children in organised armed violence in Jamaica noted that corner gangs and corner dons, which/who have sprung up in several communities across Jamaica, are now more “informal gangs that may not be connected to political patronage and violence.” They usually co-exist in communities dominated by area gangs and dons.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields, who is leading the police force’s Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB), sees clear links between the corner gangs and the underworld economy.
Criminal kingpins who control drug trafficking, Shields said, are also involved in the arms trade “and the demand for guns and ammunition is driving the trade.” Delinquent youth who dominate corner gangs are said to be armed to protect market zones and corners for the underworld activities.
But this year the police recovered less illegal guns - 280 - than over the same period last year, although Shields, guided by intelligence sources, said the arsenal of illegal guns in the hands of the criminal underworld has increased.
He disclosed that in addition to the funds generated locally, gangs are financed by successful criminal enterprises in North America and Europe. These overseas-based players, he contends, send back money and arms to secure their corners so that just in case they are caught and deported, they will have a home base to return to.
Criminal enterprises, DCP Shields said, do not recognise politics when they are selling drugs or guns. Very often, he said, they will join forces to protect or execute plans to bolster economic interest.
Locally, he said, while the development of criminal gangs started in political enclaves, today “it is not about politics, it is about building criminal empires aimed at controlling businesses…whether the lottery scam in St James, arms and gun trading in Kingston, and getting contracts.”
And the police, despite several successes, still face challenges in protecting the porous coastline. According to DCP Shields, the coastline from Hopewell in Hanover to Falmouth in Trelawny, and Old Harbour in St Catherine, Treasure Beach in St Elizabeth, Manchioneal in Portland and Morant Point in St. Thomas, are the major areas used by smugglers of drugs and illegal guns and ammunition.
Forty-seven-year-old Maureen Bennett and her seven-year-old daughter, Damone Skyers, are the latest victims in the ongoing gang war. Another deadly attack one week ago at a house owned by the mother of jailed alleged gang leader Joe Benbow, left a 67-year-old senior citizen dead.
Members of Torrington Park corner gang are mostly young boys between 11 and 15 years old, which characterises the composition of criminal gangs now driving the crime rate, investigators say.
Recent research on children in organised armed violence in Jamaica noted that corner gangs and corner dons, which/who have sprung up in several communities across Jamaica, are now more “informal gangs that may not be connected to political patronage and violence.” They usually co-exist in communities dominated by area gangs and dons.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields, who is leading the police force’s Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB), sees clear links between the corner gangs and the underworld economy.
Criminal kingpins who control drug trafficking, Shields said, are also involved in the arms trade “and the demand for guns and ammunition is driving the trade.” Delinquent youth who dominate corner gangs are said to be armed to protect market zones and corners for the underworld activities.
But this year the police recovered less illegal guns - 280 - than over the same period last year, although Shields, guided by intelligence sources, said the arsenal of illegal guns in the hands of the criminal underworld has increased.
He disclosed that in addition to the funds generated locally, gangs are financed by successful criminal enterprises in North America and Europe. These overseas-based players, he contends, send back money and arms to secure their corners so that just in case they are caught and deported, they will have a home base to return to.
Criminal enterprises, DCP Shields said, do not recognise politics when they are selling drugs or guns. Very often, he said, they will join forces to protect or execute plans to bolster economic interest.
Locally, he said, while the development of criminal gangs started in political enclaves, today “it is not about politics, it is about building criminal empires aimed at controlling businesses…whether the lottery scam in St James, arms and gun trading in Kingston, and getting contracts.”
And the police, despite several successes, still face challenges in protecting the porous coastline. According to DCP Shields, the coastline from Hopewell in Hanover to Falmouth in Trelawny, and Old Harbour in St Catherine, Treasure Beach in St Elizabeth, Manchioneal in Portland and Morant Point in St. Thomas, are the major areas used by smugglers of drugs and illegal guns and ammunition.