MONTEGO BAY, St James — Four foreigners were among 35 persons arrested on the weekend in Western Jamaica as the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) continued its crackdown on electricity theft that it insists is robbing it of millions of dollars annually and posing a threat to its viability.

A usually reliable source told the Jamaica Observer that the four foreigners are from the Dominican Republic. They are reportedly working here and living in a rented house in Lilliput, St James where most of the arrests were made on Friday.

Marvin Campbell, JPS parish manager for St James and Trelawny, could not confirm the four men’s nationality.

But he verified that they were among the 35 persons arrested on day one of the operation, which, in addition to Lilliput, saw JPS and police personnel going into Norwood and Whitehouse.

Campbell said that four built-in meter bypasses and a number of throw-ups were discovered during the first day of the operation. “JPS is once again trying to take back the electricity that is being stolen by consumers,” Campbell said.

On Saturday, as the crackdown spread to the upscale Fairview community of St James, a man was arrested after the JPS and police team found a meter bypass during a search of premises he occupies.

Campbell disclosed that the team also found several illegal connections running from Westgate Hills — another swanky St James neighbourhood — into the nearby Mount Salem community.

The team is to return to the area this week to dismantle the illicit connections. Last week, JPS President and CEO Kelly Tomblin said the power company lost US$73 million to stolen electricity over the past two years.

Tomblin said the company would go under if the thieves are not reined in, as 200,000 non-paying users of energy are raping the company and, in effect, punishing those who pay as the cost is defrayed to them.

“We are spending every month $1.8 billion to buy fuel that is stolen.

That’s about 18 per cent of our fuel bill. $11 billion was stolen last year. The cost is shared by JPS and customers. Thieves use three times the amount of energy than paying customers.

The move is to protect paying customers,” Tomblin said during a press conference at the company’s Knutsford Boulevard headquarters last Thursday.

The weekend crackdown followed similar raids last Wednesday in Windsor Heights, Windsor Meadows, Big Lane and Little Lane in Central Village, St Catherine where JPS said a total of 1,085 throw-ups and 13 illegal meter connections were found.

Last Tuesday, a pharmacy operator in Montego Bay, St James was arrested and charged for illegal abstraction of electricity after an audit of his meter indicated that he was still using electricity although his service was disconnected for non-payment.

On Saturday, Campbell said the 35 arrests over the weekend pushed the total number of arrests during the anti-theft drive this year to well over 100.

Last week, JPS attracted a lot of flak after it cut power, for 12 hours, in communities where electricity theft has been rampant.

The company said it took the decision as part of a strategy to get more persons in communities where more than 70 per cent of the power is stolen to pay for the electricity they use, and reduce the overall cost to paying customers.

But the Office of Utilities Regulation ordered the company to end the action and asked the JPS to provide it with information to substantiate its claims.

At the same time, JPS officials were called to a meeting with the prime minister at Jamaica House where a committee led by junior energy minister Julian Robinson was set up to address the high rate of electricity theft.