TWENTY FIVE persons have been taken into custody by the Kingston West Police who are conducting a cordon and search operation in the hotbed community of Denham Town.

Police and Jamaica Defence Force soldiers are combing the community in search of men who are suspected of murdering a bus driver in the area on Monday night.

He has been identified as Oniel Roberts, 29.

Police report that Roberts was sitting on a road when gunmen approached and shot him several times. He died on the spot.

Deputy Superintendent Arthur Brown told the Observer that the police were closing in on the killers.

"We have an idea who they are," Brown said.

Residents of the area have complained that after the incursion by the security forces and the capture and extradition of former strongman Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, the community has become a stomping ground for armed gangsters who are running amok.

Some residents claim the gangsters are raping females from the community and using crazy glue to seal their mouths.

"Them a rape woman left, right and centre. Them broke out now because bad to bad that couldn't go on when the don a run things," one woman said.