Police have theorised that intra-gang violence within the notorious Clansman gang has been responsible for the upsurge in murders in the St Catherine North division since the start of the year.

"The recent flare-up of violence in the parish started with internal squabble in the Clansman gang. We are pursuing the major perpetrators in the intra-gang feud," Superintendent Beau Rigaby, who is in charge of the St Catherine North division, told Loop Jamaica reporter Claude Mills.

The division includes areas such as Spanish Town, Thompson Pen Road St John's Road, March Pen Road, Jones Avenue, Tawes Pen, Lakes Pen and De La Vega City.

There are two main gangs based in Spanish Town: the One Order and Clansman gangs. Together, they have been able to establish an elaborate racket that has turned the St Catherine capital into a haven for thugs who prey on informal sellers and formal businesses, extorting hard earned cash that the gangs then use to finance their criminal networks.

The squabble centres around the power struggle between the Blackman gang, a breakaway from the Clansman gang, and those who are loyal to de facto Clansman leader, Tesha Miller.

The internal feud, according to one investigator, is centred on the leadership of the Clansman gang and the extortion ring in the vicinity of the Spanish Town bus park. The St Catherine police are also monitoring developments with another Clansman breakaway - the Square/Zambia gang.

Since the start of 2018, St Catherine has recorded 19 murders, six more than the same period last year. There have been several flash points in the division which prompted a curfew in the area, and a prayer vigil by members of the religious community in the bus park to put a damper on the percolating violence.

In January, several residents of Jones Avenue protested the killing of an unidentified man by police, then the day after, gunmen traded bullets with lawmen, causing panic at St Jago High School after thugs jumped the perimeter fence and bolted though the school to escape the cops. There have also been several shootings in the bus park in the town.

The violence seems to be spreading. Earlier this week, a 16 year-old Spanish Town High student, Courtney Sterling, of a Lauriston address, was stabbed to death and his body placed in a shallow grave in Welch Heights district, Spanish Town, St Catherine. No motive has been established for that killing.

Last year, there was an actual decrease in the number of murders in the division as 134 persons were killed, a reduction from the 146 killed in 2016.

Loop Jamaica article* 02-2018

This syndicate was raking in 448 million 7 years prior from a bus parking area shakedown & contract killings. Currently estimated to raking in 83 million a year.