WESTERN BUREAU:

Six persons - five women and a man - have been detained in a crackdown targeting persons implicated in the lottery scam being operated in Montego Bay.

The Gleaner understands that the arrests were made on Wednesday and Thursday during security operations across the western city. At press time, they were still in custody.

On Thursday, four persons, three women and a man, were detained at Halt district in Anchovy, St. James, in connection with the scam. They were held in a joint police/military operation, which began shortly after 2:00 a.m.

"I can confirm that they are being interrogated and that documents connected to the scam were found with them," said Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifford Blake, head of Area One, on Thursday.

The lucrative scheme has also been linked to several murders in the St. James Police Division.

Members of the Area One Fraud Squad reportedly held two women on Wednesday at an office on Market Street in Montego Bay. It is said that several documents, containing names and telephones numbers in the United States, were confiscated.

"I know that what we will be doing is to cross-check the information on the list with telephone records of those held," explained one officer involved in the investigation.

The lottery scam crackdown intensified in December, and to date, more than 20 persons have been arrested. Eleven of the cases have been adjourned, however, as local detectives are being handicapped by the reluctance of American victims to come to Jamaica and testify in court.

Many involved

The police have disclosed that those involved, mostly males aged 18-40, make US$4,000 to $10,000, weekly. Several women are also said to be involved in the scam, both as collectors and suppliers of names and critical personal details about potential victims.

School children are reportedly being recruited as well to collect money from remittance outlets.

The practice is allegedly being facilitated by unscrupulous employees of some firms engaged in the information communication technology sector. These workers are said to be providing local scam artists with personal information on American clients, who are then conned out of large sums of money under the guise that they are paying for a legitimate service.