Donovan ‘Bulbie’ Bennett, the infamous gang leader who Heather Robinson unmasked a decade ago as an emerging criminal ‘don’, was shot dead by police yesterday just outside the Clarendon community Tanaky, near Rock River.

Another man, who the police, up to last night, identified only as Nathan, was also shot dead at the sprawling two-storey house on the Tanaky hillside, overlooking the winding Rio Minho.

Bennett, who has been on the run since 1995, was leader of the notorious Spanish Town-based Clansman gang, one of two gangs which operate in the old capital and are at each other’s throats for control of the town’s protection and extortion business.

Last night, the national security minister, Dr Peter Phillips, commended the police and soldiers who participated in the Operation Kingfish campaign that led to Bennett’s death.

“The success was achieved by superior intelligence, the support of the public and the determined focus of the law enforcement agencies,” said Phillips, who is under pressure to control violent criminality in Jamaica where nearly 1,400 people have been murdered already this year.

According to the police, Bennett, 43, and Nathan were at the Tanaky house, a large, white boxed-shaped structure, when the security forces turned up shortly before 5:00 am yesterday. The cops had received intelligence that the gang leader “and other criminals” were hiding at the premises, according to the police information agency, the Constabulary Communication Network.

The police say that as they approached the house they were fired on by Bennett and his crony. During the firefight both men were fatally shot.

A .44 Desert Eagle pistol with four live rounds and a Ruger 9mm pistol were seized after the shooting, the police said.

It was not immediately clear whether the men died in or outside the house or whether they had made an attempt to escape. Neither was it clear whether other persons were at the home and had escaped.

Bennett’s name, or more so his nickname, ‘Bulbie’, as well as his goings-on, came to national prominence when Robinson, then a ruling People’s National Party (PNP) Parliamentarian for South St Catherine, used him as a metaphor for the emerging politically-aligned “dons”, about whose dangers she warned and from whom she told her parliamentary colleagues to stay away.

Robinson, in the sectoral debate, related how Bennett had sought her patronage and sponsorship to become the “leading don in Jamaica”, but told the House she was incapable of giving birth to a ‘don”.

“In that regard I am truly barren,” she said.

Robinson resigned from the legislature the following year over a rift between herself and PNP councillors in her constituency over the kinds of persons with whom they were willing to be associated.

But over the years, Robinson has spoken out against political toleration of gangs and has frequently, on radio discussions and in her newspaper column, called Bennett’s name as a gang-leader and accused him of a raft of murders and other crimes. She has complained about the inability of the police to catch him.

Last night, the police did not give specifics of Bennett’s rap sheet but said: “(He) was wanted for several murders, shootings, extortion and other serious crimes committed in Spanish Town, Old Harbour, Portmore, St Catherine and May Pen, Clarendon.”

All these are towns on Jamaica’s south/south-central corridor.

The house at which Bennett was found was neatly tucked away between several hills. It boasted seven bedrooms and five bathrooms – one of which was furnished with a large jacuzzi only. Most rooms were filled with expensive, even if seemingly inexpertly collected, furniture.

On the roof of the house are three large water tanks with a sophisticated water pump system. There is also a stand-by electricity generator.

From either of the two balconies there is a spectacular view of the Rio Minho and the plains beyond.

“This is the lifestyle of a king,” Operation Kingfish spokesman Sergeant Steve Brown quipped at the scene. “No ordinary criminal should be living this kind of lifestyle.”

Tanaky residents said they were unaware that the house belonged to Bennett. They were under the impression that it was being built by a returning resident from England.

According to one resident, who identified himself as Mitchell, during the construction the workmen never saw Bennett. At the completion of construction workmen were refused further entry to the premises, Mitchell said.

Officials have launched an investigation into whether Bennett formally owned the land and the house and how they were acquired, the police said.