ST CATHERINE, Jamaica— The deadly link between gunmen and lottery scamming, which has been wreaking havoc in western parishes, the epicentre being Montego Bay, St James, spreading with murderous consequences to once-idylic Trelawny and Westmoreland, was further borne out in the St Catherine Circuit Court last Friday.

Shanni Dryden, of Waterford, Portmore, already serving five years for an illegal-gun conviction in 2021, was last Friday sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for breaches of the Law Reform Fraudulent Transaction Act (lottery scamming) when he appeared before High Court Judge Yvonne Brown.

Dryden was found in possession of people’s information, referred to as ‘lead sheets’ on August 5, 2020, during a search of his phone by investigating officer District Constable Dr Jason McKay.

Dryden, at the time, was being held as a suspect in the murder of a National Housing Trust employee but was never charged.

McKay gave evidence that on August 5, 2020, he searched Dryden’s phone, with the accused’s permission, and found the lead sheet with persons’ information in the notes section of the device.

Police intelligence indicates that gunmen in western parishes have been able to forge a deadly axis with lottery scammers, who finance gangsters’ weaponry via the guns-for-drugs trade with Haiti. Scammers, who handle huge sums of foreign currency, utilise the gunmen as protection for their ill-gotten funds.

Police Commissioner Major Antony Anderson recently described high-powered rifles recovered as “weapons of war” and has since hailed seizures by customs in Montego Bay and Kingston as major dents in the gangs’ operations.