Quick response by the police on Thursday morning foiled what they believe was a plot to murder a Petrojam employee at the State-owned oil refinery plant on Marcus Garvey Drive in St Andrew.

Jamaica Observer sources said that three men, who were sitting in a motor car in the Petrojam parking lot, in the vicinity of gate five, were accosted by about seven policemen who searched the vehicle and found two handguns loaded with six bullets each.

The sources said that the suspected target is a manager at the company. They also allege that early investigations have so far revealed that the gunmen were contracted by another employee. However, Petrojam officials and the police are yet to confirm this.

Petrojam General Manager Telroy Morgan, in a statement addressing the matter, said, “[A]pproximately 6:25 am three persons were apprehended by the police in the car park designated for contractors located outside the entry to the property. The Hunt’s Bay Police are investigating the matter. We can, however, confirm that the individuals are not employees of Petrojam nor are they contracted by Petrojam.”

Senior Superintendent Kirk Ricketts, commander for the St Andrew South Police Division, where the policemen who responded to the incident are assigned, said that he wouldn’t be able to get into the details. However, what he was sure about was that the police prevented a violent situation from unfolding.

“What I can confirm is that sometime about 6:00 am a team from the St Andrew South Police Division, led by the shift commander, intercepted three men in a motor vehicle. We seized two firearms along with the motor vehicle, and the three men were arrested. We do believe that these men had a plan and were up to no good. At this stage, I do not really want to get into the details of what we believe the plan to have been. The investigation is a joint one and it is joint because where the men were interdicted was in the Kingston West Division. The police who initiated the action are from the St Andrew South Division.

“The Kingston West Division is bordered by St Andrew South, and responding to something across the border is normal for both divisions. Both Kingston West and St Andrew South detectives are currently interviewing the men. Secondary investigations could lead us to as far as Kingston East, where we believe one of the men is from. Our actions prevented serious and violent actions,” Ricketts told the Observer Thursday afternoon.

A video of the police leading handcuffed men into the back of a service pickup vehicle in the parking lot at Petrojam has been circulating on the Internet since the incident occurred.

When the Observer visited the location following the men’s arrest, security guards, contractors and other employees were tight-lipped about the situation.

A few of the people who said anything at all only pointed out that they had not heard anything about the situation since arriving at work.