ONE of the men featured in an amateur video of the Joel Andem Gang, which was seized by the police, was yesterday turned in by a friend, the police said last night.

The man, Junior Alexander Smith, who goes by the appellation “Puddy Roots”, was seen on the video mixing a drink at a Christmas treat for children of the gang members at their then camp in Rawley Gully, about seven kilometres from Kintyre in St Andrew. He also performed a song, asking blessing for the “warrior family”.

A police spokesman told the Observer that “Puddy Roots”, who was turned over to the police’s Crime Management Unit, was being questioned in connection with crimes committed in the Land Lease, Kintyre and Papine areas of St Andrew by the gang.

The police said the friend who turned him over said he had seen him on the video broadcast on television Sunday.

The police have, since the March 2 murder of a district constable in Kintyre, stepped up their hunt for members of the Joel Andem gang, which they say is linked to more than 20 murders and involved in extortion and contract killings.

A $100,000 bounty was this week placed on the head of gang leader, Joel Andem, an ex-convict who is said to be heavily armed and dangerous.

The police also reported yesterday that they held one of the men on its most wanted list who was shot and injured by his cronies in Clarendon, the parish in which he is suspected to have committed a number of crimes, including murder.

The man, John Planter, who had escaped from the General Penitentiary on October 1 last year, was held in Cockpit District, Salt River, Clarendon, after he and one of his cronies were shot and injured by members of their own gang Monday morning.

The Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) reported that Planter and members of his gang had a rift when he was labelled a police informer. “He consequently ordered his cronies to leave the house, where they were staying,” the CCN said. “He and a remaining loyal gang member were at the house at about 9:30 am when their companions returned and shot them all over their bodies. The injured men were taken to hospital where they were admitted in serious condition.”

The other gang members, according to the police, were later spotted by a police patrol at Freetown in the parish. “The lawmen challenged the gunmen and a shoot-out ensued,” said the CCN, which added that the men escaped.

Planter, who was serving a six-year sentence at the General Penitentiary, was one of four men who escaped from the facility last October.