THE police yesterday captured the man who they say took over the leadership of Joel Andem’s notorious Gideon Warriors gang and claimed that Kevin “Richie Poo” Tyndale wet his pants and pleaded for his life between the time he was held in a sleepy rural village in St James and being deposited at a Kingston lock-up.

“He wet his pants,” a policeman who took part in the operation told the Sunday Observer. “It was amazing to see a man whose name drives fear into many hearts, begging and pleading for his life,” added the policeman who did not wish to be named.

“Even after he was handcuffed he kept begging the officers not to kill him and when he was taken to the lock-up he thanked the police for not killing him.”

Andem’s gang, which operated primarily from the Kintyre area of St Andrew’s hilly region, was blamed for a reign of terror in the Papine/August Town districts of the parish and for extortion rackets at markets and transportation centres.

Gang members have been also accused of robberies, rapes and killings, including the August 2000 kidnapping and murder of service station operator Sylvia Edwards.

While police say that the gang had been around for a long time, it came to national prominence in early 2002 when the police, during a raid at their camp at Rawly Hill Gully, seven kilometres from Kintyre, found video recordings of Andem and his men, armed with high-powered rifles and other weapons, hosting a Christmas treat for children in the community and frolicking with each other.

The recording also showed gang members engaging in domestic chores and issuing threats against the police.

In the wake of the discovery of that recording as well as a notebook containing names which the police feared were would-be victims, several gang members were killed in confrontations with the police and Andem, 40, was himself captured at a house in the hills of St Ann, last May.

Police believe that with Andem’s capture, Tyndale took control of what was left of the Gideon Warriors.

Yesterday Assistant Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds, the head of the anti-drug and gangs task force, Operation Kingfish, said that Tyndale’s capture and arrest had all but crumbled the gang, whose unravelling was accelerated with Andem’s arrest.

Seven other persons who were active members of Gideon Warriors were held last week, Hinds said, but declined to give further information. “We believe we have successfully dismantled the gang but we are still looking for the remnants,” Hinds said.

Tyndale, who had a $100,000-bounty placed on him only three days ago, is expected to face the courts next week to answer to three counts of murder, three shootings and one count of robbery.

In addition to those charges, cops say Tyndale is a suspect in 19 other major crimes including murder, shootings and robberies. Police believe he shot and killed 56 year-old Ena Grant while she worshipped at a church in Land Lease, St Andrew, last June.

The triple murder of 20 year-old Kimona Simpson, her 24 year-old common-law husband Richard Miller, and her nine year-old son Tevin Parchment is also suspected to be the work of Tyndale and his cronies.

According to the police, with the cops breathing down his neck, Tyndale tried to find refuge in St James, in an area called Black Shop, near the community of Johns Hall.

“When the heat reached Richie Poo he. fled to the country but we now have him where we want him,” said Kingfish information officer Sergeant Steve Brown.

According to ACP Hinds, the Kingfish boss, the six-hour operation to capture Tyndale, involving Senior Superintendent Donald Pusey’s Special Anti-Crime Task Force and Jamaica Defence Force soldiers, went like clock-work. It began at about 3:00 am.

“The operation was surgically conducted,” he boasted to reporters. Black Shop’s usual Saturday morning routine was shattered as lawmen cordoned off the area near the house for about five hours. People milled about and talked about Tyndale and the two other persons who were held with him:

. one, the owner of the home, whose name was not released but is suspected of harbouring a known fugitive;

. the other, an alleged Andem gang member who the police claim fled Mud Town in St Andrew as the police closed in on the remnants of the Gideon Warriors.

“The police say they could have gotten him (Tyndale) from last night as they saw him riding a red bicycle in the area,” one resident told another in hushed tones yesterday morning.

“He was at the football field on the bicycle,” the other responded. No one gave names and all claimed not to have known that fugitives were in the area.

One man who lives close to the house where Tyndale was held said he had seen the strange men Friday evening but was not unduly worried.

“Up to 11 o’clock one of them was sitting in a bar having a drink and nobody take it for nothing, because we don’t live in a violent community,” he said to his friend.

Staff reporters Karyl Walker and Horace Hines contributed to this story.