When the police, between 2018 and 2019, scooped up “a whole heap” of alleged members of the St Catherine-based Klansman gang, the outlaws had no idea exactly who had turned them in. They knew, though, that it was an inside job.

That was the testimony given yesterday by the man labelled ‘Witness Number Two’ as the trial of 32 men and a woman accused of being members of the criminal organisation continued in the Supreme Court, downtown Kingston.

He is the first of two ex-gang members turned State witness who has been giving evidence from a remote location since the start of the trial in September.

The witness, during cross-examination by defence attorney Denise Hinson, who represents the accused Brian Morris, otherwise called Rooster, denied having knowledge of any statements given to the police by any other individual from the gang before he gave his own statements.

He said he was unaware of the contents of any such statements and further denied knowing the identity of the individual who was feeding the police information. However, he said the incarcerated underworld figures were sure of one thing.

“I never knew who it was, Miss, that was talking to the police at that time. Everybody was surmising who it was. Nobody was sure who it was,” the witness said.

Said Hinson, “But you knew somebody was talking?”

“Yes, Miss”, he replied.

Asked by trial judge Chief Justice Bryan Sykes whether he “came by this understanding before [giving his] statement”, the witness said, “Yes, Your Honour. While in custody everybody was surmising who it was.”

Questioned further by Justice Sykes, who asked, “What was it that led to this surmising…what is it that led you to thinking that somebody must have been talking to the police?” he replied, “Due to the way them come for me up a mi house and the statements and everybody getting locked up and stuff like that, so I was surmising it’s somebody that know us.”

“It’s not everybody know about me, Your Honour, and due to how the operations — everybody start getting picked up — so we surmise that it is somebody that know us,” added the witness, who told the court that he got “locked up June of 2019”.

The witness, while being questioned by Justice Sykes, said on the day he was arrested he woke up to see his entire street and his yard covered with soldiers and police “beating down” the grille to his house.

“It was early in the morning, I think it was before 6:00 am. I was frightened and nervous. They told me they had a warrant to search my house. They did conduct a search, then they take me away to Twickenham Park Police Academy, and then from there to Tamarind Farm,” the witness stated.

“So it was when you were locked up that you start to see other persons from the organisation?” Sykes asked.

“It’s a whole heap of us get locked up at once, Sir. Some let go couple days after and some they keep. They locked up a lot of people…by Tamarind Farm,” the witness replied.

Under questioning by Hinson, the witness said when he saw that others were released and he remained behind bars he further surmised that the police had a case against him.

In the meantime, under re-examination by the Crown, the witness was asked to explain his earlier statement in which he claimed to be forced into the gang by accused leader Andre “Blackman” Bryan.

“Sir, from you a deal with dem gangster here you can’t refuse; once yuh refuse, yuh know yuh a go dead,” he told the prosecutor.

Asked by Justice Sykes if he had formed that view after coming in contact with the so-called gang members or whether he had come to that conclusion on his own, the witness said, “Basically, Sir, yuh know from yuh a deal with gangster a Jamaica, once you refuse or once you come in contact with them and you see anything that they do and you are not with them, then you are going to be murdered, that’s it, that’s how Jamaica run.”

He added: “They start taking set at my house. I can’t tell them no, your honour.”

He told the judge that this impression was cemented after reasoning with his now-deceased friend Frazzle, whom he found out was part of the gang and who had introduced him to Bryan.

In the meantime, the witness reiterated that overhearing his former cronies plotting to kill a top investigator of the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigations Branch (C-TOC) while in the holding area of the Supreme Court, downtown Kingston, ahead of a court hearing was the final straw that led him to break ranks with the gang.

“You told his lordship you heard them planning to kill [female police investigator] and you did not want to be a part of that. Who is Miss [name redacted]?” the prosecutor quizzed yesterday.

“Miss [name redacted] is a C-TOC officer, she is the one they claim going around locking up all the gang members,” the witness replied.

At the beginning of this month, Witness Number One who took the stand after Witness number Two, had told the court in detail how he double-crossed his former running mates, helping investigators get guns and ammunition from their very hands.

Witness Number One had told the court that he, in 2018 while Bryan was behind bars, had approached police investigators to oust the gang. He said initially investigators had disbelieved when he told them that Bryan, who was then incarcerated, had called him from a private number from the confines of the prison.

He said while in their presence he received a call from Bryan and put the phone on speaker so they could hear Bryan speaking to him for themselves, at which point they realised he had not lied.

The witness, who professes to have been a top-tier member of the criminal organisation, told the court how he duped the gangsters at one point, taking a CTOC officer right into their presence to collect a gun and bullets, telling them he was his uncle.

The witness, who also said he was forced to join the gang by Bryan in 2016, told the court that in 2017 he had tried to approach the police but backed off because he was overcome by fear.