A POLICE constable and a prison warder were being questioned yesterday, as detectives from the Organised Crime Investigation Unit sought to establish who abetted two Colombians who were to be deported, to be released from the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre, central Kingston, where they were being held.The Colombians, Elrico Myles and Wilfred Taylor, were still on the run last night and some sources told The Gleaner they may have left the island.
"Early information would indicate that they have returned to Colombia, but we won't be able to verify that until we have sorted out all the paper work," an investigator said.
Police sources told The Gleaner that the constable, who is from the Eastern Kingston Division, had visited the prison on Tuesday, passing himself off as an immigration officer, and managed to secure the release of the men.
According to one source, the police were led to the constable based on an entry made in the prison diary.
The two Colombians landed illegally in Jamaica in April this year and were held by the police in St. Elizabeth. They were taken before the Black River Resident Magistrate's Court, charged with illegal entry, and were each sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.
According to the police, the men served seven of the nine months and should have been released on Tuesday. However about 10:15 a.m., an hour before their scheduled release, three men, allegedly including the warder and the policeman, turned up at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre with passports and plane tickets for them.
The Colombians were turned over to them and all five left the prison together, heading up Elletson Road in two vehicles, presumably for the Norman Manley International Airport.
"They left an hour before the immigration police went there with the authentic travel documents for the Colombians," the source said.
