A series of operations in Hanover and Westmoreland earlier this month resulted in three suspected lottery scammers being nabbed and more than US$10,000 in cash among other items seized, the Financial Investigations Division (FID) announced Friday.

The suspects have been identified as Shannon Taylor-Christie, a 37-year-old bar operator of a Flamstead/Kingsvale address in Hanover; Deck Evans, a 31-year-old, party promoter of Whitehall District, Westmoreland; and Shane Blagrove, otherwise called “Big Meech”, a 29-year-old unemployed man of a Prospect District address in Green Island, Hanover.

The operations were held over the period May 10 to 18, according to the FID, which provided the intelligence which led to the suspects being apprehended by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Area 1 Operational Support Team, the Westmoreland Police, the JCF’s Counter Terrorism & Organized Crime Investigations Branch (CTOC), and the Major Organised Crime and Anticorruption Agency (MOCA) with support from United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Fusion Centre.

Along with the over US$10,000 in cash, a 2014 Toyota Mark X and lottery scamming paraphernalia to include cellular phones, US-based bank cards, a laptop computer and an assortment of financial documents were seized, the FID said.

Evans and Blagrove were charged with breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) and the Law Reform (Fraudulent Transaction) (Special Provision) Act. Taylor-Christie was charged with breaches of the Larceny Act and the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA). Blagrove will appear in the Hanover Parish Court on June 2, 2023. Meanwhile, Evans and Taylor-Christie are scheduled to appear in the Westmoreland Parish Court on June 6, 2023.

The FID’s Principal Director of Investigations, Keith Darien, noted, “The persons apprehended are believed to be directly involved in defrauding elderly United States nationals of over US$100,000. Their arrest is a demonstration of the effectiveness of cross-border and local collaboration which has been strategically strengthened and refocused over recent years.

“Regardless of the jurisdiction in which Jamaicans commit financial crimes, once a mutual legal assistance treaty exists, it will be leveraged to bring these persons to justice and deprive them of their illicit wealth,” he continued, adding “We continue to urge Jamaicans to direct their creative energies into wholesome, legitimate endeavours instead of aspiring to criminality.”