MONTEGO BAY, St James – Shanon Ricketts, one of the 30 people held during a raid last week in connection with the alleged international sweepstake and lottery scam, was yesterday charged with obtaining money by false pretence, conspiracy to defraud, and 21 counts of fraud.

Ricketts, a resident of Bogue Estate in St James is the second woman charged since last week’s raid on 13 locations in Hanover and St James that was led by the elite Operation Kingfish, assisted by officers from the Fraud Squad, Financial Investigation Division, Special Anti-Crime Task Force, Mobile Reserve, Organised Crime Division, Police Area One, and the Jamaica Defence Force.

She is booked to appear in the Half-Way-Tree Criminal Court this Thursday to answer to the charges.

The other female accused is Sheneika Headley of Westgate Hills, an upscale residential district her in St James. She was charged with unlawful possession of property and hauled before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate Court last Friday, where she was offered bail in the sum of $250,000. The police were also attempting to freeze an account belonging to Headley which officers said contains another large but undisclosed sum of money.

Nine motor vehicles, more than $1 million in cash, a number of computers, cellular phones, and what Inspector Steve Brown, the communication officer for Operation Kingfish described as “interesting documents that will lead us very far in the investigations”, were seized.