MONTEGO BAY, St James – Faced with a rising crime wave that has already pushed the number of murders in this parish to 166 since January, Security Minister Peter Phillips yesterday announced that the highly successful Operation Kingfish – the task force that was established to target drug runners, gangs and crime bosses – would immediately set up a post here.

“Right away, Operation Kingfish is going to establish a direct presence in western Jamaica,” Phillips said, adding that the location of the base would be kept secret.

This latest move comes on the heels of the recent deployment of additional police officers to the parish.

Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas yesterday released the names of four men whom he described as Montego Bay’s “most wanted”, offering $1 million – $250,000 each – for their capture.

The men have been identified as:

. Peter Johnson, who also goes by the name “Ravers”, from the Red Dirt section of Flankers;

. Cedric Murray, alias “Doggie” from Norwood;

. Eldon Calvert from Salt Spring; and

. Rohan Gordon, also known as “Don”, from Norwood.

“We have linked these persons to most of the murders in the parish of St James,” Thomas told journalists after a tour of Retirement – where gunmen recently snuffed out the lives of four family members and injured several people – and Rose Heights, where men posing as police went on a shooting spree, killing four people and injuring two others.

The commissioner issued a public appeal to the four to give themselves up peacefully, warning that if they failed to comply they would be “hunted relentlessly sand brought to justice”.

A few hours after the police commissioner’s warning, People’s National Party (PNP) caretaker for North-West St James, Henry McCurdy, reportedly handed over Johnson to the police.

At the same time, the national security minister warned the police that the Professional Standards Branch had been mandated to identify and uproot corrupt cops in St James who aid and abet criminal elements in that parish.

“Special efforts are going to be directed in terms of the Professional Standards Branch of the JCF to identify and root out any corrupt element within the ranks of the JCF operating in St James, and who may be providing support and succor to the criminals,” Phillips said at a press conference.

These were among a raft of measures being implemented to stem the wave of criminal activity in the parish.

Other measures include:

. the expansion of a counter-gang task force that will have as its exclusive responsibility, the identification and pursuit of gangsters. Operation Kingfish and the major intelligence task force have been directed to provide assistance in case preparation, and provide support for the St James Division;

. upgrading the mobility of the St James Police Division;

. utilising the automated fingerprint identification system and the ballistics identification systems, which are going to be deployed in Montego Bay next week; and

. the setting up of a social intervention division that will spearhead a multi-agency effort to intervene in volatile communities and to build a better bond between the police and the citizens. This division will also support the economic and the social activities of people in the communities.

“We understand that we have no magic wand that can immediately change the situation here in St James, but we give the assurance to the people of St James, and to the country on a whole, that the security forces will spare no effort, and that we will do what is necessary,” Phillips said.

“We will try identify additional resources where those are needed, but we will not rest until we remove the current scourge of the livelihood not only of the people of St James but indeed of all Jamaica,” Phillips added.

“. We went to visit Retirement and we visited Rose Heights. And there we saw direct evidence of the trauma that has been caused by this wave of criminality that has beset Montego Bay and the wider St James area,” Phillips said.

“What spoke more eloquently was the tears of the people who have been witnesses to the senseless killings that have ripped some communities in this area.”

Last year, there were 137 reported cases of murder in the parish, 29 fewer than the number reported so far this year.

The security minister also told journalists that 18 gangs were operating in the parish, but only four were responsible for most of the crimes committed in the parish.

The four gangs, he said, were “the so-called Stone Crusher gang, the Tight Pants Crew, the Killer Bees and the One Order gang”.