Adrian Frater, News Editor

Les Green, assistant commissioner of police. - Norman Grindley /Deputy Chief Photographer

Western Bureau: THE police task force which is being created to break the back of the lotto scam in Montego Bay, and which should have commenced operation on August 1, has hit a snag: The American agents, slated to join the investigations, are yet to arrive in Jamaica.

"We are still waiting on the Americans," says Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green, head of the Major Investigation Task Force (MIT), under whose portfolio the new unit will operate. "Hopefully, they will join us soon, as they are critical to the effective functioning of this task force."

local scammers

Despite the absence of the American agents, Green says the MIT is still vigorously pursuing the local scammers and is getting cooperation and assistance from its United States counterparts.

"We are still getting cooperation from the US authorities and we are still arresting people who are involved in this scam," reports Green. "When the Americans get here, we should see an increase in the number of arrests, as they will add another dimension to what we are doing."

When the task force was first announced back in July, Green told The Sunday Gleaner the American agents would provide the local police with additional resources and capability to go after the players in the illicit scheme. He indicated then that the police would no longer have to go through the cumbersome processes now being used to conduct overseas investigations.

Currently, to solicit the support of overseas law-enforcement officials, the MIT has to make a request to the director of public prosecutions, who, in turn, will make an application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which would make contact through their overseas counterpart.

delays in investigations

"The existing situation is oftentimes quite long and time-consuming and results in prolonged delays in our investigations," Green stated back in July. "With this new task force, the process should flow much faster and we will be able to bring people to justice in a much shorter time," he added.

The Montego Bay lotto scam, first came to public attention in June 2005. Jamaican scam artists used illicitly obtained personal information about American citizens to con them into sending money here under the guise that they had won a Jamaican lottery.

The police have theorised that the money earned through the scams has been channelled into Montego Bay's criminal under-world. Law-enforcement officers have blamed that situation for the increase in homicides in the parish. According to Green, police intelligence is showing that the money is being used to buy high-powered rifles to be used in gang warfare.