Although the St Catherine South police have named informally developed areas such as Gregory Park, Newland, Naggo Head and Old Braeton as hot spots in Portmore, established low-income housing developments such as Portmore Gardens, Southboro,Waterford and, recently, Portsmouth have been contributing significantly to the area's crime statistics.

Some of those seeking low-income housing solutions in Portmore were affiliated, directly or indirectly, to Corporate Area gangs, which emerged out of political warfare during the 1970s and '80s.

Waterford was the first planned Portmore low-income development to earn a reputation as a trouble spot. It remains so to date, with its Boston gang being among the more infamous in Portmore.

As a result, in the early 2000s, some Portmore communities were found to be harbouring migrant criminals from the country's Hunts Bay police area, which accounts for a significant share of Corporate Area murders.

Criminals fleeing their rivals and the police in the Hunts Bay division, which oversees communities on either side of Spanish Town Road, encompassing the Waltham Park and Molynes Road areas, sought refuge with relatives or friends who had relocated to Portmore.

Unable to return to the metropolis' inner-city communities, these criminals gained footholds and established gangs in the vulnerable depressed areas of Portmore such as Newland, Naggo Head, Old Braeton, 'Lesser Portmore', Dunbeholden, Lakes Pen and Old Passagefort.

Citizens hold key

"We need for people in troubled areas such as Waterford, Portsmouth, Southboro, Newland and Naggo Head to report situations they see happening around them so we can take the necessary police action," division chief, Superintendent Marlon Nesbeth, emphasised.

"In some areas, the ones not so troublesome, we have good relations with citizens. We're trying to build with others," Nesbeth added, pointing out that police-citizen relations in Greater Portmore, especially, were great.

"Response to our citizen-outreach programme in the Greater Portmore area is good, as activities are fed to the police and we act quickly."

However, it is the operational activities of the St Catherine South police which have made the biggest dent in the Portmore ganglands.

This realisation in the early 2000s called for a strategic plan to attack gangs in Portmore and St Catherine South, in general, but by early 2004, the plan appeared to stall and murders jumped to a record 148 in 2004.

Move to clean up community

However, by mid-2004, an initiative brokered between the business community and police command in Portmore kick-started a thrust to rid the area of gangs.

Deputy Superintendent Carl Malcolm was given the task of spearheading the team and Terrence Bent was appointed to command the division after the untimely death of then superintendent of St Catherine South, Cornelius Walker, in an automobile crash. Private investigator Jason McKay, Caymanas Park track security boss, was also recruited.

By 2008, the division saw a dramatic fall in murders from 148 in 2004 to 115, a decrease which Nesbeth has attributed to the targeting of gangs and their havens.

"We've made significant breakthroughs, especially with players from Waterford and Newland, the Umbrella gang," he said. "There was a situation of a rival gang from Portmore Lane, the Unruly gang, with Newland's Umbrella gang, involving murders and shootings. One main player, Unruly's Ian Morris, was taken out in a direct confrontation with the police," Nesbeth disclosed.

Another alleged gangland figure, Jeffrey Taylor, wanted in connection with six murders in the Dunbeholden area, was recently killed in a midnight gun battle with police.

"He was intimately involved in a gang situation as a trigger man, not restricted to this division, but also to St Catherine North, based on our intelligence reports," said Nesbeth.

Police vigilant

Much of the police gang unit's success has also been credited to Deputy Superintendent Clive Blair, the operations officer at St Catherine South. Blair has managed to net more than 230 illegal weapons from the streets of St Catherine South since 2006. Recently, six were recovered in a one-week span.

Joining forces with Nesbeth, Blair restructured parts of the team to focus on the gangs, leading to the removal of more than 40 from the streets, either by the bullet or judge's gavel.

In many cases, some were men of 'legendary notoriety' in the Portmore gang world. Keith 'What A Sight' Reid, Wilberforce 'Crackers' Mattherson, Don Toppin and Kevin 'Kill Dead' Walters were all put behind bars.

The Portmore police say the gang structure, especially the networks of Newland's Umbrella gang, Waterford's Boston gang, as well as those in Gregory Park, has been quiet in the main. The gangs have crept out occasionally but have been largely prevented, the police say, from carrying out extortion rackets, which have become commonplace in the Corporate Area, Spanish Town, May Pen and other parish capitals around the country.

There is one daunting task, however: one of Portmore's main crime figures, a jailed gang boss, allegedly continues to issue orders from prison.

"We voiced our concerns and were given assurances by prison authorities that he was isolated. However, we are told he still communicates with gang members," said Nesbeth.

ainsley.walters@gleanerjm.com