After four years on the run Joel Andem, at the time Jamaica’s most feared and notorious, was captured in May 2004 by police and soldiers during an operation in Clarksonville, a rural farming community in St Ann close to the border with Clarendon.

Andem, who led the Gideon Warriors Gang, was clearly frightened as the security forces corralled a six-bedroom house he shared with his father and another adult.

Police reported that at the time of his capture Andem begged for his life and trembled like a “badly tuned truck”.

The feared gangster, who cops accused of over 20 counts of murder, rape, extortion, kidnapping and robbery, was described by police as a semi-literate who had many brushes with the law.

He was first sentenced to six months for larceny in 1983 before being slapped with a 42-year sentence seven years later for illegal possession of a firearm, robbery with aggravation and wounding with intent.

He was, however, released after eight years on parole.

The deadly Gideon Warriors Gang, which operated in the Kintyre, Papine, August Town, Mud Town, and Land Lease communities of St Andrew, was blamed for over 20 murders.

Some of their victims included;

• Sylvia Edwards, the gas station operator who was abducted and buried in a shallow grave after family members failed to pay a $200,000 ransom;

• Edwards’ brother-in-law, Everett Edwards, who was shot dead across the road from her gas station on Hagley Park Road in Kingston in November 2001, a day before he was scheduled to testify at the preliminary inquiry of three men held for the murder of the gas station operator;

• Pearl Brascoe, an St Andrew Eastern People’s National Party activist, who was shot dead in November 2000 after being branded a police informer. Her body was dumped in a water tank in August Town; and

• District Constable James Thomas, who was shot dead in Kintyre in November 2000 while he was on his way to work at the Papine Police Station. His body was thrown in the Hope River.

In total, police suspect that Andem was involved in at least 23 murders.

He is currently serving a 20-year sentence for shooting with intent and was also sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment at hard labour on a charge of illegal possession of a firearm.

In addition, he was slapped with another 20-year prison sentence in relation to other gun-related charges.

He was 41 at the time of his arrest.