HEAD of the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) has supported calls for the establishment of a court to handle corruption matters.

MOCA Director General Colonel Desmond Edwards told the Jamaica Observer, in a recent interview, that a special court was needed to deal with the slew of corruption cases that has come up as a result of arrests the organisation has made over the one-year period it has been in existence.

Such a court is needed, he said, while expressing concerns with the slow pace at which cases go through the court system due a heavy case load.

He pointed out that special sittings have been held, to great effect, in the Santa Cruz RM court in St Elizabeth, to deal with lotto scamming cases.

MOCA’s statistical review for the period August 4, 2014 to August 4, 2015, shows that the agency conducted 307 operations from which 533 people were arrested. Those arrests resulted in 351 people being charged. Thirty-three of those arrested have been convicted.

The agency charged 178 lotto scammers, six businessmen, three contractors, former Senator Basil Waite and a haulage contractor.