THE EDITOR, Sir:

ACCORDING TO your front-page story in last Friday's Gleaner, Assistant Commissioner of Police Denver Frater was quoted as saying: "If you look in recent times at the calibre weapons that are recovered by the police, the amount of rounds, ammunition being expended and recovered at crime scenes and the motives, investigations point to the lotto scam."

The assistant commissioner was further quoted as saying that the lifestyles of some persons clearly demonstrate the volume of cash that is being circulated. I would like to find out from the assistant commissioner, is one able to tell the source of funding of the underworld activity by noting the calibre weapons, the amount of rounds they use and the motives?

While I can appreciate Frater's position and access to the latest intelligence where crime is concerned, I must disagree with his analysis. Why would the members of the criminal underworld use the proceeds from the lotto scam to purchase weapons when it does not need weapons to sustain the scam?

The more tenable analysis to the source of funding for crime in this country is the extortion industry, where billions of dollars are being raked in all across the country, and which can only be sustained and augmented by the acquisition of powerful weapons.

I am, etc.,

CASHLEY BROWN

Kingston 19