MOCA to go after lotto scammers

National Security Minister Peter Bunting addressing the annual conference of the Police Federation in Trelawny yesterday - Shamir Brown photo

A new anti-crime task force is expected to be launched by month-end and one of its primary objectives is to tackle the illicit lottery scam that has permeated several sections of Jamaica, primarily in the western section of the island.

This new initiative, dubbed MOCA - the Major Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Task Force - was announced by National Security Minister Peter Bunting, who was speaking at the Jamaica Police Federation annual conference at the Trelawny Resort and Spa, yesterday. 

He explained that the new initiative would have oversight of the Lottery Scam Task Force that is already in operation and many other key areas that have been described as major crimes.  

To the credit of the existing Lottery Scam Task Force, it has successfully undertaken several raids in the western end of the island which have seen several of the major players arrested and their assets seized. Minister Bunting remarked that basically, the perpetrators were now running scared as their operations have been broken up, with many of them now relocating to other areas of the island. However, that did not mean that the older task force would become non existent, it will just now fall under the direction of MOCA.

He described the persons in the lottery scam as parasites, who continually leach off the very old and their pensions. “It’s a wicked and cruel act when they robbed these persons of their life savings,” the Minister declared.

MOCA is expected to be officially launched in another two weeks and will be in league with several local security arms such as the NIB, JCF while also partnering with International Crime Fighting agencies. The aim of this new initiative is to go after the major players in the criminal underworld, their assets and persons who facilitate them. At present, members are being recruited within the security forces to be vetted to fill these positions that are now becoming available. 

The Minister also emphasized the plan by the Security forces to reduce murders to 12 per 100,000 from its current rate of 43 which is way over the rate of a civil war which is 30 per 100,000.