LACOVIA, St Elizabeth — Even as the country is in an election year, Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang has suggested that politically connected criminal suspects will not be spared.

“Order and public safety continues whatever the time is. We all know the election cycle there is, and we are continuing investing in our security force to ensure that there can be good order and public safety. We do a lot of other things and we have to; it is normal in a democracy [that] we are going to do things that will make some people feel nice,” Dr Chang told his audience at the official opening ceremony for the new $200-million Lacovia Police Station on Wednesday.

“But we are not going to do anything to make any criminal feel nice. We are not going to encourage anything. There will be no disorder, whether they wear green shirt, blue shirt, yellow shirt, orange shirt, or no shirt at all. If they give problem, the police have instructions to find them and get them off the street,” Chang added.

Last month One Order Gang leader Othniel “Thickman” Lobban was killed by the police. Lobban reportedly was a key figure in Jamaica’s criminal underworld with influence in several sections of the island.

The One Order gang is headquartered in the Tawes Pen community with strongholds in Ellerslie Pen, Dempshire Pen, Gordon Pen, Shelter Rock, Homestead and Chambers Lane. The gang has created splinter factions in other areas of the country, including rural regions.

It has long been considered to be supportive of the Jamaica Labour Party, and it is believed to be one of the more powerful gangs in the island.

The One Order Gang is a fierce rival of the Klansman-One Don gang, which is considered supportive of the People’s National Party.