A deadly feud between two rival gangs loyal to the Spanish Town-based Klansman and One Order gangs is threatening to tear apart sections of Tredegar Park, a community on the outskirts of the old Jamaican capital.

According to Superintendent Derrick Champagnie, the gangs – led by two of the most wanted men in the St Catherine North Police Division – are responsible for several deaths, shootings, rapes and robberies in and around the Tredegar Park community.

“One of the gangs is led by a man who goes by the aliases ‘Niggosh’ or ‘Handsome’ and the other by a man known only as ‘James Hinds’ or ‘James Bond’; both are wanted for murder,” Champagnie told the Observer Monday. “Both men rose to prominence some time last year and they have been recruiting members to the gang by both force and fear.”

Champagnie said that the gangs have made life for many Tredegar Park residents a nightmare, and that some residents are even targeted based on the section of the community in which they live.

Niggosh’s gang is loyal to the notorious One Order while the faction led by James Hinds is affiliated to Klansman, Champagnie said.

Both gangs have been at each other’s throats in a heated war for turf and are responsible for at least two murders since the start of the month.

Sunday’s murder of 43-year-old Vivian Douglas and that of 21-year-old Lionel Williams, whose severed head was found near the entrance of the community last Thursday, are being linked to the rivalry between the gangs, the Superintendent said.

Champagnie could not give a motive behind Douglas’ murder but said that, “intelligence suggests that Williams was killed because he switched from one gang to the other”.

But despite the lack of cooperation of some residents, Champagnie said that the police will remain focused on restoring calm to the community.

“We have made some progress to clamp down on their activities, quite a few gang members have been cut down by the police and we have some before the courts now, but the problem we are faced with is that a lot of residents keep silent because they are afraid,” Champagnie noted.