ASSISTANT commissioner of police Glenmore Anthony Hinds, 48, is not your typical policeman. Articulate, soft-spoken, reflective and a model of relaxation – more the picture of a boardroom figure rather than a kick-your-door-in type of operational cop – Hinds kicked back in his office last week to explain to the Sunday Observer his vision of what Operation Kingfish is all about in an anniversary interview.

The unit became a year old last month – it was formed on October 19, 2004 – but in that 12-month span, has managed to make a bigger dent in organised crime than any other crime squad can claim in their years of operation.

Kingfish was announced by the government as a broad-based operation designed to attack the centre of gravity of drug trafficking and criminal organisations, and to stem the rising crime rate and gang violence in the island.

Hinds, a 30-year veteran of the force, who joined the constabulary in May 1975, a day ahead of his 18th birthday, was immediately named task force commander.

The difference between Kingfish and previous crime-busting initiatives is its pre-emptive strike on criminals gangs rather than being focused on containment.The rationale for Kingfish

The other difference is Hinds, whose focus is not only on hunting down crime bosses, but also bringing them to justice.

Williams: Why did it become necessary to form Operation Kingfish?

Hinds: Essentially, what gave birth to Operation Kingfish was the anti-narcotics campaign by Jamaica and its international partners. In late 2000 to 2001 when narcotics trafficking from the Caribbean really began to impact on Britain, they were fighting the drug trafficking trade from their perspective.

The United States was a bit ahead, but they were having the same difficulties.

South America was having a different kind of problem with the narcotics trade, because the producing countries, certainly Colombia, are located there. And so it was felt that if all the countries which were impacted by the trade, albeit from different perspectives, were to collaborate more, they might have a more meaningful impact on the trade. And so, what started to happen was greater cooperation among some South American states, Jamaica, the United States, Canada and Britain.

What we saw happening in 2001 was that Britain began to deploy more law enforcement persons to Jamaica at their mission here; the USA, similarly.

Then there was greater sharing and collaboration between law enforcement agencies in Jamaica and those countries. It was almost like a task-force approach.

The result was that we saw where, for example, Jamaican traffickers used money-transfer services to wire money to (cocaine) suppliers in South America.

This was done going through Panama.

The collaboration led to the US being able to arrest some of its major traffickers, the UK similarly, Colombia and Panama also, and Jamaica.

This resulted in persons being arrested in Jamaica, two dubbed drug trafficking ‘kingpins’ by the United States, and others, all now going through various stages of proceedings seeking their extradition to the United States.

After that campaign, it was felt by Jamaican policy-makers and their international partners, that if a similar approach was to be used to look at the major organised criminal networks, it would likely have a similar result and so this led to the birth of Operation Kingfish in October last year.

The mandate then was to dismantle the major organised criminal networks which we estimate to be a dozen or so. And so the campaign against these major criminal networks started. Essentially, Operation Kingfish was to use specially vetted persons in the intelligence community, the Jamaica Constabulary Force – largely from Special Branch – the Military Intelligence Unit, plus our international partners.

12 gangs targeted – one dismantled, seven disrupted

Williams: How many of these 12 gangs has Operation Kingfish taken down so far?

Hinds: We are confident that we have dismantled the Gideon Warriors Gang, led by Joel Andem at some stage, who was succeeded by Kevin ‘Richie Poo’ Tyndale.

(Andem was sentenced on Tuesday in the Home Circuit Court to 30 years in prison for shooting at the police and illegal possession of a firearm, and is facing murder and other charges. Tyndale has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for various offences.)

We have also severely disrupted some other gangs, certainly the Matthews Lane gang led by Donald ‘Zeeks’ Phipps (who is on trial on murder charges).

There are two gangs in east Kingston that we have impacted – the One Ten Gang and the Top Road Gang in Dunkirk.

Also, there were two gangs operating in Jacks Hill – the Ryan Richards Gang and the Steve ‘Mop Head’ Halliman Gang.

They have not been dismantled but they have been severely disrupted, their activities having been reduced to the mere minimum.

Some of the persons involved in these gangs have been arrested; some have been killed by their cronies.

Also, there are the two Spanish Town gangs (Klansman and One Order). We have impacted on them in significant ways. A number of the members have been arrested, some have been killed either by their cronies or in confrontation with the security forces. Whilst these gangs are still active, there is a level of disruption in terms of their activities. And, of course, the leader of the Klansman Gang, Donovan ‘Bulbie’ Bennett, was killed (October 30) in confrontation with the security forces. So, we would have dismantled one gang and disrupted another seven.

Breaching the gang’s intricate networks

Williams: What have been some of your major challenges in taking on these criminal gangs?

Hinds: Most of the major criminal gangs are well organised and they do not operate in one location. They do have satellites, operating in other communities apart from their headquarters. Also, some of these gangs have been in existence for a number of years. They have built up loyalties in their members and within communities in which they operate.

They are, in fact, benefactors to a number of communities.

One of our strategies is to use public education to advise the community that although there are financial benefits to be gained from these gangs, one of the things that emerges is that in essence, these communities are enslaved by these gang members, who determine when they live, how they live, where they live.

A case in point would be that of Donovan Bennett where citizens (of Spanish Town) were coerced to go out and demonstrate.

Also, these gangs have acquired enormous financial resources and are able to employ high-priced lawyers. Some have lawyers on retainer, so as soon as they are arrested or they hear rumours that they are wanted, these high-priced lawyers turn up.

And most of these gangsters have huge arsenals at their disposal. And they seem to have a ready pool of recruits to replenish the gangs.

Once individual members are taken out, they are readily replaced them.

Kingfish’s operational strategy

Hinds, who himself once headed Special Branch), says Kingfish’s strategy is to use ‘intelligence consolidation’.

The task force takes basic strands of information and consolidate them with information already collected. It then analyses current intelligence to develop operational approaches and investigative leads into the major organised criminal networks.

To support these activities, Kingfish has a community sensitisation programme. The task force tells target communities what it is doing and how it intends to do it.

As part of its strategy for information gathering, it indicates to the wider public what its intentions are, the successes it is having, and its failures.

Another strand is Kingfish’s toll-free 811 number through which members of the public can give information confidentially on criminal activities.

It was always intended, said Hinds, that Operation Kingfish would operate a small headquarters that would “consolidate intelligence, develop these products, so it relies largely on all the existing operational formations to help to sustain it.

“But what we do though, is that once we develop an operation in Kingfish, we seek to maintain ownership of the operation and what we have done is to bring some systems into our operation. So once an operation is developed, we maintain ownership by guiding the planning process, determine the appropriate resources that are required, where it will come from, and then once we have an operation in progress, we establish a command and control centre.

As the task force commander, I maintain strategic control of the operation, albeit that we might not be physically on the ground, although on most occasions we do have elements on the ground. Some of the investigators will be on the ground if it is a matter that we are investigating, to gather evidence. So we do maintain control of ground operations. I maintain strategic control.Criminal networks have common theme

We estimated that most of the major organised criminal networks in Jamaica had a few common themes to them.

They rely on extortion, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and some of them have also gone into kidnapping. And so we felt that the strategy must be to look at cutting off the funding to these organised criminal networks.

One of the avenues that we embarked on was really the funding supplied by the drug. So we actively pursued a strategy to seize vessels that we suspected were being used to convey drugs and that’s why we were able to seize these (go-fast) boats in the first wave of our campaign.

We also felt that if we were to impact on the maritime conveyances, then they (the drug traffickers) would definitely have to go to another area.

Another strategy was to disable illegal airstrips to prevent the (drug) planes from landing.

Williams: How does Operation Kingfish stand in terms of resources?

Hinds: You must look at it within the context of a small island state challenged in many areas. And I suppose that no police department can say that it has all the resources that it needs. But we think that we have resources to enable us to carry out our mandate.

There is always the need for more.

Williams: What about legal support?

Hinds: All countries that would have successfully tackled major organised criminal networks would have had to do so through robust legislative refinement. Certainly, we have been able to nudge the policy-makers to amend some laws and to enact some new ones.”

The Proceeds of Crime Bill that is going through Parliament, and the amendment to the Evidence Act that will allow for video-link testimony, are laws that we would have influenced.

To fight major organised criminal networks where gangs have far reaches in business, politics and the community, a RICO-type statute is a prerequisite to really deal with the problem, so that is one piece of legislation that we are pushing for, where you really spread the pain of criminal enterprise.

Once persons are associated with criminal enterprises then they are under the microscope.

(RICO is the acronym for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisation, a US statute detailing laws relating to organised crime.

Pleased with help of international partners

In terms of helping to develop our case preparations, in terms of the international co-operation links, it has been tremendous.

The deployment of them here has certainly enhanced our ability to impact on both our investigations and the intelligence products that we come up with.

The discovery at the docks in Kingston last week of a cache of arms and ammunition which was consigned to Donovan ‘Bulbie’ Bennett and his Klansman Gang was a testimony to our enhanced intelligence gathering capabilities and also to the importance of document-collection and analysis. These sometimes do tell a story.

Williams: Kingfish found a trove a Bulbie’s house?

Hinds: Yes, we seized reams of documents that we are sifting through.

They are providing some interesting revelations. We had a good sense of how the gang operated but these documents are providing an even greater insight.

While we have not satisfied our mandate yet, we believe we are on the right track.

The results since we started have been tremendous. We have been able to confiscate 50-odd boats, 1,240 plus firearms, a third of which are rifles, more than 2,500 cartridges, 12 tonnes of cocaine, 4,300 pounds of compressed ganja and have arrested 235 persons for a range of offences including murder, ammunition, firearms and drug possession.

Williams: What do you say to the criticism that Kingfish takes credit for all police successes?

Hinds: The criticism is not valid but I quite understand it. What

Kingfish has demonstrated to the public is that once information is given to us it is treated in a particular manner to ensure confidentiality of the information and we also demonstrate a willingness to act on the information in real time.

So we have developed some confidence in the general public. The other thing also is that we do seek to maintain relevance in the eyes of the public by providing periodic updates on our activities.

And so it is not that we are taking undue credit but rather it is that because we have established a relevant brand it remains in the eyes of the public maybe more than any other policing formation.

And, of course, the record will bear out that we have been successful in what we have done.

Witness protection has always been a key issue and we seek to ensure that our witnesses are protected. One of the surest ways of protecting our witnesses is to ensure that once persons are arrested they are convicted, by carefully preparing our case and that will inspire confidence in potential witnesses.

One of the things that we seek to do is to ensure that we function at a standard of investigative excellence. We intend at all times to ensure that we gain convictions. So the cases are prepared in such a way to ensure that once we go through the processes we will get convictions, although we can’t be certain.

We would want every policeman to consider himself a part of Kingfish because we rely on them to operationalise our product.

Kingfish guarantees that once information comes to its attention we will make the very best use of it.

We still intend to make sure that the level of confidentiality they get from us, we seek to maintain that, because we recognise that it is important to provide this kind of confidentiality and to allow the public to feel that they can speak in confidence (to Kingfish) and whatever they say will remain with Kingfish.

Members of Operation Kingfish have been carefully selected and vetted to ensure credibility, capability and trust. A full-time attorney-at-law with vast prosecutorial experience has been assigned to Kingfish to provide legal guidance during investigations.

Its operations are supported by the various sections of the security forces.

williamsl@jamaicaobserver.com