Jamaican security forces are nervously bracing for a mass deportation of Jamaicans from Britain and the United States, including some members of the feared ‘Yardie’ and ‘Posse’ gangs who were convicted for crimes such as murder, shooting, rape, illegal drug and firearm offences and larceny.

Officials have confirmed that the British Government has just signalled its intention to send home nearly 1,000 Jamaican citizens jailed in the United Kingdom, with most expected by month-end, following a decision by the Blair Administration to cut their jail time in exchange for early deportation.

“America has an even larger number to deport. We know that there was a large batch last month,” said Donovan Nelson, the communications advisor to the Ministry of National Security.

National security and foreign affairs officials appeared resigned to the fact that they had to accept the Jamaicans being deported, but made it clear to Britain and the US that they only wanted certified Jamaican nationals.

“Our position is that we are seeking additional information, documentary proof of who are these persons. We need to be satisfied that they are all Jamaicans, and we will also need to know the nature of the offences for which they were imprisoned, so that we can make appropriate security provisions upon their arrival,” permanent secretary in the National Security Ministry, Gilbert Scott, said in a radio interview Friday.

Officially, the first group of 70 from the UK are expected to arrive this Tuesday, adding to the total of 1,858 Jamaicans deported from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, the Bahamas, Colombia, Curacao, Cayman, St Martin, Panama and Barbados, in the past five months.

But Sunday Observer sources said the number could be as many as 750, and they include high-risk criminals who were members of the “Yardman Gang” and “Yardie” criminal network that terrorised British law enforcement officials, including Scotland Yard, during the 1980s and 1990s.

For almost two decades, the drug network of Jamaican gangs cornered the British crack/cocaine market, before they spread their wings to other parts of Europe and North America where they were known as “Jamaican Posses”.

The offences committed by deportees range from murder and manslaughter, to drug and firearms possession, robbery, burglary, larceny, wounding, assault, rape, and document fraud. They also include nearly 700 persons who are classified as illegal aliens who have overstayed their time.

Scott said that Jamaica was obliged to accept its nationals under international law. When Jamaican criminals and non-criminals began to be deported from overseas, the security ministry, then headed by K D Knight, got Parliament to approve legislation to have deportees monitored. However, the plan hit several snags, as many deportees had no known addresses because they had no relatives here.

Additionally, many were not wanted for any crimes in Jamaica.

Today, it remains unclear how much monitoring is done, as the security forces have their hands full keeping up with the country’s murder toll, which has escalated past the 500 mark since the start of the year.

Police officials have publicly fretted that the modus operandi of some criminals and the nature of their crimes in the last 10 or so years, including drive-by shootings and kidnapping for ransom, were alien to Jamaica and many bear “the deportee stamp on them”.

In the meantime, the British authorities have not yet given a precise time-table for the mass deportation, but Nelson said they had indicated they wanted to increase the number they send each time.

“They have already processed 70 persons but we don’t know definitely when the deportation will begin,” Nelson told the Sunday Observer.

The total population of Jamaicans in British prisons amounts to 2,400 and the British authorities have indicated that most of them will be given reduced sentences in exchange for them being sent home.

In the case of the United States, deportees have been coming home almost daily, with an average 35 coming in on the last Thursday each month since the year began.

Upon arrival in Jamaica, the deportees are processed by the local police before being let out into society. Some of those processed have been immediately arrested, as they were identified as absconding bail or have charges against them still outstanding.

In a recent example, police last month arrested Kirk Wilson upon his arrival in Jamaica after they found out that he had skipped bail on a charge of illegal possession of a firearm.