There is concern among the police that thugs behind bars are ordering the murder of persons on the outside.
This was confirmed by Head of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Les Green, following formal charges being laid on Michael McLean, an inmate of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre, who is alleged to have ordered the killing of two women and a policeman even though he has been incarcerated for the past four years.
He has been in custody since 2006, in connection with the murder of a 30-year-old St Thomas resident Patrice Martin-McCool and her three children who were found dead on a beach in the parish with their throat slashed.
McLean was last week slapped with murder charges linked to the murder of police Constable Otis Barrett of the Mobile Reserve who was shot and killed in Linstead, St Catherine on September 19.
He is now also charged with the killing of Evian Marsden and Michelle Fisher, 18, of Western Park in Clarendon, who were killed execution-style on Pennant Terrace, off Red Hills Road in Kingston, on October 25. The police theorise that those murders were linked to the cop's murder.
cell phone links suspect
According to ACP Green, a cellphone which was found in Mclean's possession recently aided investigators in linking the two deadly incidents. He also said that the cellular phone was used to identify McLean as a suspect behind the murders.
"We suspect there is a link between Constable Barrett's death and the killing of the two women. The premises where Constable Barrett was murdered belonged to Marsden who visited Mclean after the policeman's death," ACP Green told THE STAR earlier this week.
There are also a number of other incidents that the police theorise were orchestrated by gang leaders who are in prison, however, much details were not disclosed as investigations are ongoing.
As a result, ACP Green said the police and Correctional Services Department are working to bring more effective machines into these facilities, adding that scanners and 'jammers' have been used but only to limited success.
