Police specially assigned to track and bring them in describe Andem as a mercenary who “will kill you anywhere, anytime, once the cash is right”.

“He is involved in extortion, contract killings and will kill you if he looks at you and doesn’t like you,” the police say.

Amateur video footage taken by a member of the gang gives a glimpse into the lives of these men as they issue bold threats to the police while invoking Haile Selassie, the late emperor of Ethiopia and, in the process, show off their guns.

The full story on Pages 4 & 5.

e doesn’t appear much on the video.

A fleeting shot early on as a group of young men struggle to tie and slaughter a young bull. It is apparently stolen, for a voice in the group warns the others to be careful that the owner hears the commotion.

Andem’s name is not called. Marlon and Wes are mentioned.

Then another quick shot, during a sequence dated February 2, 2001 at 7:01 pm. As a group of men smoke from a chalice and brandish hand guns and threaten ‘Babylon’ and generally had a good time, one of the group decides to pay homage to the leader.

He attempts a few times to cut off the chatter before he finally gets everyone’s attention: “All a we chat,” he says. A few words are lost. Then he adds: “We dey roun’ de big man.”

The camera pans on Joel Andem. He says nothing, but he grins his acceptance of the acclaim. As in the earlier shot, Andem has an automatic rifle across his lap.

“Most wanted,” says a voice.

There is much laughter and clear camaraderie throughout the video. It is a good-time crowd.

But don’t be fooled by the Christmas 2000 treat for many children, the dancing, the laughter of the group, warn the police.

Andem’s place on their most wanted list — a position in which the gang clearly revels — is not for nothing.

“(Andem) is a mercenary and will kill you anywhere, anytime, once the cash is right,” says a senior police officer who is member of a special team from the Flying Squad that was set up to track Andem’s gang. “He is involved in extortion, contract killings and will kill you if he looks at you and doesn’t like you.”

In fact, the police link Andem’s gang with at least 20 murders, including the killing, two Saturdays ago, of District Constable James Thomas, 56, in the Kintyre area of Papine.

Thomas was on his way to work at the Papine Police Station at about 6:30 in the morning when he was shot several times and his body left in the Hope River bed. His service revolver was stolen.

Police say that Thomas was warned against using that route to the station.

“We told him not to walk there to work as the short-cut he used was like Joel Andem’s highway,” says a police officer.

On the video, during the chalice-smoking sequence, there are implied threats to the police.

“Bun (fire) for the red, blue and white,” says a voice. “….Red seam, blue seam…”

Some of the words are garbled.

But red seams and blue seams are colloquial terms for members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and members of the Special Constabulary who have red and blue seams, respectively, on their trousers.

This video was among the items seized by the police when they, in January, raided Andem’s camp in a bushy, hillside area of St Andrew called Rawley Hill Gully, about seven kilometres away from Kintyre.

Intelligence sources say that among the items found in the camp were notebooks with the names of people, including policemen, politicians and a journalist who they planned to kill.

Judging from the video, dubbed in black and white, that camp — if it was the one captured on the recording — was a relatively well-organised community. There were shots of a small house with a propane gas stove and a bed.

Apparently, that hut was shared by two young women, one called Tamika, who features throughout the video — from hosting the Christmas treat for children to posing with guns — and another whose name is not mentioned.

In one scene of domesticity a male gang member and Tamika are painting an inside wall of the wooden house and commenting on the creature comforts now available to Tamika. There are shots of at least one modern camp tent pitched on a crude, elevated wooden base, apparently to allow for drainage.

The date on those scenes is the 28th December, 2000.

Rewind to three days earlier, Christmas Day, 2000. The time on the video says it is 1:54 pm. Preparations are in place for a party. Balloons and other decorations are being hung and food is being prepared. Gifts are packed on a makeshift table.

The scene resembles an ordinary backyard in a rural community, so it is not easily determined whether the venue is Andem’s camp. The only clearly identifiable building is what seems to be a small shop with a sign, naming it “Desert Force Headquarters & Bar”.

Several well-dressed children are feted throughout the afternoon and into the evening, but the affair begins to turn into a more adult party. Tamika is clearly in charge. She is the MC, organiser and host, telling the children when to line up for their food and gifts.

At one point, someone seeming to be a DJ who tasted a bit of prominence in the 1980s, performs. Part of his offering: “Protect the warrior family, the warrior family that watch and protect over we.”

Andem’s gang also goes by the name of “Gideon Warriors”, which it adopted from an earlier gang of the same name, many of whose members were recruited while Andem himself served time in the General Penitentiary.

Andem will be 39 on August 17. He is sometimes called Bald Head or Lean Head. Born at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, he grew up with his mother and sisters and brother at 11 Miles, Bull Bay. The family later moved to Back Bush in the Mountain View Avenue area of Eastern Kingston.

His first brush with the law came in June 1983 when Andem, then two months shy of his 20th birthday, was convicted in the Half-Way-Tree Magistrate’s Court for larceny. He was sentenced to jail for six months but the sentence was suspended for a year.

Seven years later, in May 1990, Andem was convicted in the Gun Court for illegal possession of firearm, robbery with aggravation and wounding with intent. He was sentenced to a total 42 years.

He was released in August 1998 on parole and was soon on his way to his current notoriety.

The police believe that the gang was behind the kidnapping and murder in August 2000 of gas station owner Sylvia Edwards, a case apparently linked to attempted extortion. Edwards’ body was found in a shallow grave at University Heights in the Papine area, near the known haunts of Andem’s gang.

In November last year, Edwards’ brother-in-law, Everett Edwards, was gunned down across the road from the service station, on the day before he was to testify at a preliminary inquiry into her murder.

Police also blame the gang for the murder of Pearl Brascoe, a People’s National Party (PNP) activist in the August Town area of St Andrew. Brascoe, who was apparently branded as a police informer, went missing at the end of November 2000 and was found dead early December that year.

The killers of this elderly woman tied her with rope, dragged her along the ground, threw her into a water tank and shot her.

Police say that Andem will kill members of his own gang who he no longer trusts.

“They don’t know the value of life,” says a detective who is part of the Flying Squad team on the hunt for Andem.

Police say that Andem is a semi-literate.

Yet, he has demonstrated a knack for eluding the law and the police suggest that he has shelter of important and monied people. Andem’s last encounter with the police was in January of this year when he was tracked to a guest house in the upscale community of Jacks Hill, St Andrew.

The police believed that they had him cornered, but he was able to escape. However, four persons, including a woman, who were at the premises at the time, were arrested. A gun and 90 rounds of ammunition were seized.

“He is where you least expect,” says a Flying Squad detective. “He operates like a general who leads from the back.”

Among the reasons for the police’s failure, so far, to bring in Andem is the apparently tight-knight nature of the gang and the limited risks he takes personally despite the seeming carefree attitude of the group suggested by the captured video.

Police believe that the gang operates a thriving protection racket, especially in the Papine area, although it is known to be involved in crime elsewhere on the island.

Andem does not collect the money himself. Intelligence sources suggest that the cash may pass through as many as six hands before reaching the gang leader.

“The money might even reach the country (rural Jamaica) before it gets back to him,” says one source.

Andem’s closest lieutenant these days is said to be a 17-year-old called Troy, whose surname could not be ascertained. He reports directly to the boss.

Before Troy, according to the police, Andem’s top confidant was Edward Young, also called Chinaman. Young was killed in a gunfight with the police. An AK47 rifle and a 9mm pistol were taken from his body.

They are the kinds of weapons evident on gang members in the video: in the cattle-killing sequence with the shot of Andem himself, sitting slightly aloof from the proceedings, holding the high-powered weapon across his lap.

At the Christmas Day 2000 treat there is a quick shot of a man with a rifle slung over his shoulder. In between all that some invoke the spirit of Christmas and the need to make the children happy.

“The children don’t know ’bout Christmas songs,” someone says. “We want them to know.” The children dance to the latest dancehall recordings, sometimes in contests. Some seemed to get additional presents for their performances.

Fast-forward. By the date on the video it is February 26, 2001 at 12:14 pm. Tamika and two other men are sitting in the open eating and frolicking a bit. They jokingly call for the “kitchen boy”.

One of the men hands Tamika a revolver, which she weighs in her hand. The camera operator, as he has done throughout, laughs and giggles.

Somebody understands, seemingly, the potential of what is being shot, even if it is acknowledged in joking fashion.

“Wehhh! Evidence,” he says.

Perhaps the same person: “What de pon it …Eagle?”

“Evidence!”

Tamika is now standing, posing with the two pistols.

Two-gun kid style at one point. At another she takes on a pose like Jimmy Cliff in The Harder they Come.

The other young woman joins her and both pose with the pistols. Pointing.

The cameraman is a wee bit apprehensive, it seems, despite his laughter.

“Mek sure it set right,” he warns. ” … (Re)member ah me in front of it.”

It’s two days later, according to the date on the camera, February 28, 2001 — 7:01 pm. The group is preparing and then smoking from the chalice.

The giggling cameraman asks someone to give a piece of the revolution song. Someone in a tent gives a few lines of Bob Marley’s Zimbabwe. Off key at first.

“Soon we’ll find out who is the real revolutionary…”

There are some Rastafarian chants and the invocation of the name of Haile Selassie … and the threats against the police and Babylon.

“Babylon b…. (expletive)!”

The cameraman’s name is mentioned for the first time.

“Hey, Coolie Man.”

He doesn’t like it.

“Don’t call me name on the video.”

The group heft around a pistol. One man shows off in his waist.

Again the Eagle brand.

The cameraman again laughs. “What the Eagle going do, fly?”

Then the shot with the group around Andem. And the laughter.

From the crowd comes: “Most wanted!”