MARLON Perry, the notorious gangster who drove fear in the hearts of citizens across the island before he finally met his demise during a gunfight with members of the security forces at a St Thomas guest house, had been one of the most sought after criminals.

Perry, who came under the police’s radar in 2010 following the murder of Thomas Lain, had been implicated in a number of incidents of rape, robbery, wounding, extortion, common assault, and at least 16 murders, including the killing of two policemen.

The 27-year-old thug, who was better known as “Duppy Film”, was also responsible for some of the illegal guns that made their way into Jamaica as police said he was a major player in the thriving drugs-for-guns trade operated by criminal outfits between Jamaica and Haiti.

The wanted man who was said to be deep in his beliefs and the practice of obeah, according to police, travelled to Haiti several times by boat and was reportedly wanted for murder in that French-speaking Caribbean country.

In an earlier interview, Assistant Commissioner of Police Derrick “Cowboy” Knight said Perry, who was educated at a St Thomas high school, had been on the run since December 8, 2010 when he was implicated in a triple murder which occurred in St Thomas, the parish of his birth. Perry was also a suspect in a case of shooting which took place on February 11, 2013.

In December 2015, he was fingered as the perpetrator behind the brutal slaying of two policemen — Corporal Kenneth Davis, who was assigned to the Protective Services Division, and Constable Craig Palmer, who was assigned to the Kingston Western Division. The officers were gunned down while at a shop in Poorman’s Corner, St Thomas, playing dominoes.

Additionally, he was blamed for the death of former National Works Agency parish manager for St Ann, Theo Blake, 30, who was shot in St Thomas on March 27. Blake was the nephew of a senior police officer.

The police had set up several dragnets to trap the notorious criminal, but Perry triumphed repeatedly in eluding those traps.

He made life difficult for the police.

“He keeps changing his features. Sometimes he wears a beard, the next moment he is clean-shaven. Right now his complexion has changed,” ACP Knight told reporters after he eluded the police and members of the military.

But besides the change in his physical appearance, which he used to elude the police, Perry was also skilled in escaping members of the security forces during shoot-outs while his cronies were oftentimes killed or captured.

Perry and two of his cronies famously escaped a dragnet which included 100 members of the constabulary force and 90 members of the army on April 13 last year in Melbrook Heights, Harbour View, St Andrew

The heavily armed gangsters took on police and soldiers in a running gunfight, in which crony Jason Foster was killed, while another was found hiding in a church building and was arrested.

Perry and his men then ran and managed to crawl their way to freedom in a riverbed north of the community and were believed to be headed to August Town to hide out. They ran leaving behind an Uzi sub-machine gun, a 9mm pistol, and more than 30 rounds of ammunition which were seized by the police.

The security forces’ search for Duppy Film and his cronies then took them to August Town but they turned up empty handed.

The gangsters then sought refuge in Manchester, but six days later one of Perry’s cronies, Kevon Eldermire, otherwise called “Harry Patta”, was captured by a joint police/military team in Alligator Pond.

The police/military then intensified their search and went to Cross Keys in Manchester, where it was believed that Perry had fled, but there were no signs of him.

The Police High Command, following Perry’s dramatic escape in Harbour View, announced an increase in the bounty from $1 million to $1.5 million to anyone who provided “reliable” information leading to the arrest of Perry.

The first reward of $1 million was announced following the murder of the two police officers.

Police believed that Perry’s love for obeah was helping him.

“Yes, we have information that he is heavily involved in voodoo,” then Deputy Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds had told the Observer.

One source had told the Jamaica Observer that so deep was Perry’s belief in the occult that he did not trust “even his own shadow”, and he always made sure that he was “properly oiled” before going about his business.

However, his obeah oil and arms could not help him Sunday morning when he took on members of the security forces in Port Morant, St Thomas, Sunday morning. This time he was on the receiving end, killed by the the weapon that he lived by.