How alleged drug smuggler Eaton Evans escaped from the Half-Way Tree courthouse while in police custody is the latest in a string of incidents of alleged police corruption plaguing the Jamaican police.  Intelligence sources told Sunday Herald that close to US$100,000 was paid by his cronies for Evans’ escape.

Reports are that Evans walked from the courthouse into a waiting motorcar, which sped off in the mid afternoon traffic.  What sources said was a well-planned exercise was executed in clockwork style, as Evans was taken downtown Kingston in the vicinity of the craft market from where he boarded a Go Fast boat.  Evans was tracked to Bimini in Bahamas where he was said to be hiding.

Head of the police inspectorate branch Deputy Commissioner Charles Scarlett confirmed that his branch was probing a possible case of criminal negligence or breaches of the JCF regulations.  DCP Scarlett and his team would now have to find answers to several questions.

The Sunday Herald has also learnt that 12 policeman have been transferred from the Half-Way Tree police station following the incident.

Based on existing rules, police personnel escorting Evans who was held at the Horizon detention centre to court are supposed to be made aware of his status and the relevant paperwork would have been taken with him to court.  Irrespective of the outcome of the case before the court, proper procedure indicates that he should have been taken back to the Half-Way Tree police lockup for safe keeping until he was transferred back to Horizon Detention Centre.  But sources say his police escort simply led him outside the courthouse and released him.

Evans, who was facing charges for possession of over 800 pounds of ganja, was exonerated when he appeared in the Half-Way Tree Criminal Court over a week ago.

However, Evans was wanted in the United States for alleged drug smuggling, after he was linked to a 1998 seizure of a large quantity of marijuana and cocaine found on an Air Jamaica flight at Fort Lauderdale airport.  He was subsequently indicted by a Grand jury in 2003 and the Jamaican Government duly advised.

Selling fingerprints

Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner Justin Felice confirmed that an ongoing investigations into allegations involving the selling of fingerprints to a Montego Bay business was ongoing.  It is estimated that the state might have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the scam via the illegal sale of fingerprints.

Several senior officers are under the microscope.  Among the suspects are gazetted officers who are labeled as corrupt based on intelligence gathered on their activities.  One suspect, who sources say is filthy rich, resides in central Jamaica and another in upper St Andrew.

According to reports from US Federal agencies, many accused Jamaicans at their trials and sentencing in Florida, mention the names of several Jamaican police officers as their cohorts in criminal activities.