Killer’s 17-year-old brother confesses links to ‘terror’ gang

Dec 01, 2010 News

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– police

Jahfar Simpson, the 17-year-old brother of captured gunman Colin Jones, has reportedly confessed to having links to the criminal gang that police said is involved in terrorist activities here.
The teen, along with his mother, Allison Simpson, and another youth, were taken into custody on Monday evening. The mother has since been released.
Kaieteur News understands that Jones’ sibling is spilling the beans on the gang’s activities on the night that the Health Ministry buildings were torched; the arson attempt at the Supreme Court, and the attacks on the Brickdam Police Station and East Ruimveldt Outpost.
According to sources, he admitted to his involvement in these activities, as well as the abduction of gold miner Wodette Roberts, who subsequently died before he was freed.
A senior official said that the brothers have already been charged and should appear in court tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Jones’ relatives yesterday expressed anger at what they claimed is intimidation at the hands of the police. They claim that Ms. Simpson was detained on Monday when she went to take meals for Colin Jones at the Brickdam Police Station. She was held at the East La Penitence Police Station until her release.
The relatives are claiming that Jahfar Simpson was snatched from near his home on ‘The Island’, late Monday night, by two men in plainclothes, and up to yesterday, they were still trying to ascertain his whereabouts.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud confirmed the arrests but did not give further details.
According to the relatives, since Jones’ arrest, police ranks have been frequently barging into their house and “tumble it while claiming that they are looking for guns and ammunition”.
“They coming every day and whole night. We can’t get to sleep,” one relative told Kaieteur News.
The relatives claimed that since Jones was first arrested in July last year, they never saw him again.
“We never see he since de story happen, other than when we hear he get hold,” another relative claimed.
The captured man’s relatives related that after hearing of Jones’ capture on Friday, they immediately travelled to Linden to ascertain what was transpiring.
There they were told to return on Monday, since the police were taking Jones into the forest to locate the shallow graves in which he had buried the bodies of two of his fellow gang members who he confessed to killing.
They said that on their return to Linden on Monday, they were told that he was at Police Headquarters, Eve Leary.
Jones is reportedly nursing a gunshot wound to his shoulder and when relatives enquired about his condition they were given the crudest of answers.
“They tell we dat if he strong enough fuh dig two grave, he strong enough fuh bear he chafe,” a relative recalled.
They claimed that his mother, Allison Simpson, then began making serious enquiries about his whereabouts with a view to providing him with meals but she was reportedly told that he was not hungry by one of the investigating ranks.
But then things suddenly changed for the family with the arrest of Jones’ mother on Monday.
“Dey (police) tell she bring food fuh he and you know dat when she go, dey hold on pon she and lock she up?” a relative stated.
Then at around 19:30 hours on Monday, Jones’ brother Jahfar was standing near his home when a heavily tinted white car with two men pulled up alongside him.
According to relatives, one of the ranks placed a gun to the young man’s head and forced him into the car before it sped away.
Family members believe that someone had given the police a description of the young man since they readily picked him out from among a group of youths who were standing with him.
“Dey get de man (Colin Jones) so why dey harassing we? We ain’t know nothing about it,” a relative said.
They also claimed that since Saturday the police have been visiting their home, although Jones had indicated that he and his fellow gang members had been hiding out at a Kara-Kara, Linden location since he and Kurt Thierens escaped from the Providence Police Station where they were being held following the Ministry of Heath fire last year.
“We want to live in peace but the police keep harassing we,” one of Jones’ relatives told this newspaper.
Police Commissioner Henry Greene said on Monday that investigators may have cause to re-arrest several persons who were questioned in the initial probe into the arson of the Ministry of Health Headquarters on Brickdam in July last year.
“Wherever the investigation leads us we will follow,” he said.
Divisional Commander David Ramnarine yesterday said that in view of the continuing investigations and based on what was told to investigators, the possibility of other arrests is almost certain.
“With the arrest of Jones and the revelations he has made, the potential was always there for other persons to become suspects,” Assistant Commissioner Ramnarine told Kaieteur News.

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