MONTEGO BAY, St James – With at least five persons murdered in Salt Spring, St James over the past five days, National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips says a team of top cops will be deployed to the troubled area within “a few days” in a bid to stem the blood-letting.

According to Phillips, the deployment will include members of Operation Kingfish and the Special Anti-Crime Task Force.

“That St James community is a particular problem, and so we are going to give it the kind of focus that Kingfish has given to the rest of the island,” Phillips told reporters in Montego Bay Friday.

Since the start of the year, 153 persons in St James have been murdered, with the communities of Salt Spring, Flankers and Glendevon accounting for a major chunk of the homicides.

The latest occurred on Thursday night when 39 year-old fruit vendor Author Drummond, otherwise called ‘Wickedman’, of Circle Way in Flankers, and Eurel Rowe, also known as ‘Falmouth’, of Bottom Pen, were killed.

Apparently baffled by the spiralling number of homicides in the parish, Superintendent of Police John Morris told the Sunday Observer last week that the police would have to re-examine their approach to stem the bloodbath in the western city.

On Friday, Phillips said that the cops would be seeking to “root out” the criminals, many of whom are involved in the distribution of guns.

“We are going to identify the perpetrators; the causes of the violence and the distribution of guns, and we are going to deal with them,” the security minister said.

cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com