OCHO RIOS, St Ann — More than $1.5 million worth of perishable and non-perishable items were seized and 16 people were served summonses to appear in court during police operations in the St Ann towns of Ocho Rios and Brown’s Town.

The seizures were made under a law enforcement drive, launched by the St Ann police, dubbed Operation Leviticus, which is aimed at restoring law and order in the parish.

Providing an update on the initiative, Deputy Superintendent of Police Ryan Gayle said during a town sweep in Brown’s Town on Tuesday that four people were served summonses to appear in court and several vehicles and weapons seized.

He said the sweep was conducted by the police in partnership with the St Ann Municipal Corporation.

According to Gayle, the latest operation was in response to an increase in murders and road crashes in the area.

“We observed that our murder rate spiked [with] some 15 murders across four weeks, [and] our road fatalities had increased. Whereas last year, compared to the corresponding period, we were at 18 accidents and 18 fatalities, this year we moved to 22 accidents and 30 fatalities so [on Tuesday] myself and seven others ranks of the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) and seven members of the municipal council decided to conduct the town sweep in Brown’s Town,” explained Gayle.

He added: “We checked the vendors where they were to determine whether or not they were operating in a space and in a way that was consistent with law; similarly we had teams monitoring the main corridors to ensure that there was free flow and movement of traffic.

“As a result of this activity there were several seizures of items, exposing goods for sale and vending in areas that were not prescribed vending areas; several offensive weapons were seized; several vehicles searched, persons searched; four persons were summoned for court, several more are to be summoned, however they have not come to claim their items at [the] station and the municipal corporation, and police are working together to have these persons come in for them to be prosecuted for offences that we would have detected.”

In an earlier operation the police said 12 people served with summonses to attend court for exposing goods for sale in the Ocho Rios market.

The police also reported that two people were arrested for breaches of the Dangerous Drugs Act.