The police in Clarendon have seized firearms and a large quantity of ammunition during a series of targeted raids in the parish. The operations, led by the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Division (CTOC) with support from the Clarendon Police, took place on Friday April 26.
Following on a flare-up of violence in the May Pen area, a series of simultaneous operations were launched in the space. One of the raids took place about 1:45 PM at a residence in the Environs Housing Scheme, Four Paths. Officers, executing a search warrant at the home of Markel Leslie, otherwise called ‘Merks’ a 24-year-old dual citizen of Jamaica and the USA who is also a farmer and entertainer, discovered an extended magazine loaded with twenty-eight 9mm cartridges in his bedroom closet. Leslie was present during the search.
The police team initiated another operation along Oak Boulevard in the Bushy Park Housing Scheme, May Pen. There, Jahrell Anthony Bailey, a 23-year-old baker known by multiple aliases including “Wengaz,” “Weng Weng,” and “Kemar,” was apprehended. A search of a bag Bailey was carrying revealed a Ruger 9mm pistol with the serial number erased and seventeen 9mm cartridges.
The operation extended to Bailey’s residence on Tulip Avenue, where the team found an M16 magazine with twenty-one 5.56 cartridges and four additional 9mm cartridges concealed under the mattress of his bed. A blue peaked JCF cap was also found in his room.
The men have been charged and their court dates are being finalised. The Jamaica Constabulary Force urges anyone who may have information pertaining to guns, gunmen and gangs to call Police Emergency at 119, Crime Stop at 311, the NIB Tip Line at 811, CTOC at 8769222373 or your nearest police station.
