MOCA to Provide Support in Weeding out Lotto Scammers

Director of the Major Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Task Force (MOCA), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Carl Williams, said the organisation will support the efforts of the Anti-Lottery Scam Task Force in St. James.

The Anti-Lottery Scam Task Force, which has been in operation since the start of the year, has been instrumental in making significant inroads into the illicit activities and operations of persons involved in the multi-million lottery scam in western Jamaica.

Under the leadership of ACP Williams, who headed the entity prior to his appointment to MOCA, Anti-Lottery Scam Task Force has made significant arrests of key players, while seizing proceeds, and assets, such as high end motor vehicles.

Speaking at MOCA’s launch, at the Police Officers’ Club, Hope Road, St. Andrew, on Monday (June 4), ACP Williams said the support which the new organisation will give to the Anti-Lottery Scam Task Force, “will be an important dimension to our work”.

This, he contended, as the cumulative effects of lottery scamming “can severely distort the local economy, and has already begun to have an extremely negative effect on our (Jamaica) image abroad”.

“We will be expanding the scope of that (anti-lottery) effort to respond to the dislocation of scammers to other parts of the country, and to focus on new targets that have started operations in eastern and central Jamaica. An important element of our efforts will be to develop the capacity to quickly respond to cyber crime threats, as well as the use of sophisticated technologies during the perpetration of such crimes,” he said.

Regarding MOCA’s relationship with the JCF’s other divisions also engaged in investigating organized crime and corruption, ACP Williams said while the new entity would not usurp their authority, “the first order of business for MOCA, will be to sit with (them), to define the ways in which we will work together”.

“We will, in a collaborative fashion, implement strategies to ensure all the entities are mutually supportive and complementary in waging the fight against organized crime and corruption. While these agencies will remain focused on their established priorities, MOCA will provide the dedicated capacity to harness all the resources of the state in the pursuit of high value organised crime targets,” ACP Williams assured.

Meanwhile, Police Commissioner, Owen Ellington, has welcomed ACP Williams’ appointment as MOCA’s Director.

Mr. Ellington said ACP Williams “brings a wealth of knowledge and experience” to the position, having headed the JCF’s Narcotics Division for several years, and worked closely with international partners lending support to Jamaica’s crime fighting efforts and initiatives, including MOCA.

In commending the successes of ACP Williams and the Anti-Lottery Scam Task Force in cracking down on the illicit lottery scam, Mr. Ellington contended that “if the effectiveness and the results that we are getting from this task force (are) anything to go by, then I think (the leadership) of MOCA is in good hands”.

By Douglas McIntosh, JIS Reporter