Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Monday announced the creation of a $50-million fund from which cash will be paid to people who provide the State with information about criminal activities.

Holness shared the information during his address at the handing-over ceremony of two houses under the New Social Housing Programme in Seville Heights, St Ann, framing his comments against the background of the Government’s need to impose a state of emergency in the parish which, he said, has contributed to a significant decrease in crime there.

At the same time, the prime minister warned gun-toting young men that, under the new Firearms Act, their punishment, upon conviction, will be harsh.

“I am getting a report later today about how many persons we have found with illegal guns, but the report I am interested in is people going to jail to face the new penalties under the new Firearms Act, that is what I am interested in,” said Holness.

“So all of those little boys running around with guns, who believe that they will go in front of the judge, plead a case and go through some bargaining process and they get six months and come out — rubbish! Weh dem say? Radam! You going get 15 years minimum. Radam!” he said, eliciting laughter from the audience at his use of the colloquial Jamaican term made popular by the social media commentator known as Peanut Dread.

According to Holness, the security forces have been picking information across the country that criminal gangs have been organising to rob supermarkets and other businesses, as well as seeking to hijack trucks transporting goods as there is a sense that businesses have a lot of cash and goods moving around because of the Christmas season.

“We have stopped a few of them, and you would have seen a few murders take place as a result of the gangs pursuing that kind of thing, and you would have seen the level of organisation behind it — positioning cars, positioning getaway [vehicles], positioning lookouts, and all kinds of things. So there is a very high organisation around it, but our intelligence is picking it up and we are moving in on them; slowly, but surely, we are getting them,” he said.

“But we think that the process could be assisted greatly if the people in the country would share intelligence with the police; tell us… and sometimes there needs to be a little reward — and we’ve been doing that with guns.

“Where we are now, having picked up this intelligence — and we are seeking to act pre-emptively to save lives — we are putting up a fund of $50 million and, depending on the quality of information you give, you could get a nice Christmas reward. We want to get people who are involved in contract killings, people who are planning to hijack stocks and goods in-transit and people who are planning to rob supermarkets during the Christmas season and other business establishments,” he said. “We want to know, and you could get a very nice reward, and of course all well secretly done, yuh get yuh money, but the criminals get their just rewards.”

Holness said since the SOE was imposed in St Ann two weeks ago there have been two murders recorded in the parish and they were domestic in nature.

Additionally, he said that based on information received the police identified 32 gangsters who have been committing crimes in St Ann as well as in other parishes and detained them under the SOE.

“So far two have been charged and one [is] about to be charged for murder. I gather one has been charged for shooting with intent and four for other offences. The rest the files are being gathered to place charges on them,” he said.

“So there is a view that somehow the Government is being very general in the use of the exceptional powers granted under the state of public emergency — that is not the case. The Government has been very clinical in its application,” he argued.

People who have information on criminal activities are being encouraged to call Crime Stop at 311, Jamaica Constabulary Force at 110, and Jamaica Defence Force at 876-837-8888.

The SOEs imposed in St Ann, Clarendon, St Catherine and specified areas of Kingston and St Andrew on December 6 will expire today.