Some of the high-speed motorcycles seized by the Motorised Patrol Division's special operation team last week.
-Norman Grindley photo
Glenroy Sinclair
, Staff Reporter
THE POLICE have intensified their probe into the use of high-speed motorcycles in a series of murders, extortions and carjackings.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Lucius Thomas, has confirmed that these powerful, high-speed machines believed to be owned by dangerous inner-city gangs are being targeted.
"Intelligence has shown that they (bikes) have been featured in a number of murders, shootings and robberies, especially in the Corporate Area and St. Catherine," DCP Thomas told The Sunday Gleaner on Thursday.
The motorcycles are used by gang members in drive-by shootings, contract killings and quick getaway in high-profile robberies.
These bikes can easily outspeed the ones that the Govern-ment purchased for the police. The lawmen further report that some of these motorcycles are used to intimidate motorists at stoplights. A small shipment of the motorcycles arrived in the island recently for one of Kingston's most dangerous gangs,
which already has a fleet of similar motorcycles, the police report.
Gang members are being specially monitored by the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID), the team which National Security Minister, Dr. Peter Phillips, claims is targeting gangs and drug lords.
COPS CLAMP DOWN
Assistant Superintendent Wayne Cameron, of the Motorised Patrol Division, said the police have seized more than 20 of these big bikes over a three-day period, during cordon-and-search exercises across the Corporate Area, last week.
"Two of these bikes were taken from one person, on different occasions. The major problems we have with these bikes is that they are not licensed or insured. We are awaiting the examiner to come and check them properly before we can release them. We suspect some might be over the 600cc ratings," said ASP Cameron.
One of these bikes was used by the gunmen who murdered Senior Superintendent Lloyd McDonald, formerly of Mobile Reserve, two weeks ago. He was trailed from Cross Roads in Kingston to the intersection of Waterloo and Devon roads, in St. Andrew, where he was shot at least nine times by gunmen travelling on a multi-coloured, high-speed motorcycle.
"We are working on a number of good leads, but no motive yet for the killing," said DCP Thomas.
In January of this year, Raymond Peru was shot and killed in Passagefort, Port-more, St. Catherine, by gunmen travelling on a motorcycle. Last November, Ser-geant S. Baccas of the Kingston Central Police Station was attacked and shot by two motorcyclists, just as he was about to make a transaction at the RBTT Bank on Dominica Drive, New Kingston.
Also in November three men and a woman staged a robbery at the Western Union branch in Bull Bay, St. Andrew. They escaped on motorcycles with $700,000 worth of goods, cash and
cellular phones.
LINKS TO DRUG TRADE
DCP Thomas described the involvement of these bikes in certain incidents as part of the organised crime structure and a phenomenon of the deportees, who learned the skill while overseas. "Some of these motorcycles provide escort for the drug trade," said Mr. Thomas.
Just three weeks ago, a St. Andrew resident reported that she was stunned by two gunmen on a bike, who brandished guns, just as she was about to drive into her home. Without hesitation, the woman sped off to the nearest police station and filed a report. When she came out of the police station, the bike men were there waiting on her.
