CLUNIE SENT ON LEAVE

To Answer Charges Before Police Services Commission

DEPUTY Commissioner of Police Owen Clunie has been sent on leave and
is to answer charges before the Police Services Commission for
compromising investigations into alleged drug-running by senior cops.

Neither Clunie nor Police Commissioner Francis Forbes could be reached
for comment yesterday, but sources said the deputy commissioner was
sent home on Thursday and could remain on leave for up to 140 days.

The charges came out of observations made in a ruling by Director of
Public Prosecutions Kent Pantry in August, after nearly a year of
investigations into allegations of senior cops' involvement in the
Colombian drug trade, as well as claims that a civilian-led
intelligence unit had illegally wiretapped the phones of Clunie and
some Cabinet ministers. Pantry ruled at the time that three people --
the head of the civilian-led intelligence unit, Roderick McGregor, and
two employees of Cable and Wireless Jamaica -- be charged in relation
to illegal wiretaps, but said he did not have sufficient information
to charge senior policemen in relation to drug activity.

However, Pantry observed in his ruling that Clunie had carried out
actions that, in effect, compromised the investigations into alleged
police involvement in the Colombian drug trade. Clunie himself had
been a suspect in the investigations.

According to Pantry, on August 29, Clunie spoke to Robert Smith, the
director of the witness protection programme, and received information
concerning a key informant in the investigations. He said Clunie, the
next day, went to Portland with Smith in search of the informant.
Although it was well known that investigations were being conducted by
an assistant commissioner of police, Pantry said, Clunie and Deputy
Superintendent Terrence Sanko went to Portland where Sanko interviewed
and obtained statements from police personnel allegedly involved in
the same investigations.

Pantry said such action would have the effect of interfering with the
investigations, since those police officers would now have been
alerted to information already available.

Pantry did not order Clunie charged for any offence, but the Police
Services Commission, acting on the observations in the ruling, carried
out its own investigations and has decided to charge Clunie with
tampering with the investigations.

Senior police sources said the deputy commissioner, who heads the
Bureau of Special Investigations which probes police misconduct, was
expected to be interdicted until the matter was completed.

"Keeping him on active duty will only serve to further emasculate the
morale of the police which is already experiencing a bad rating," a
senior cop said.

Should he be found guilty of the charges, Clunie could be asked to
retire in the public interest or given a dishonourable discharge. It
was not clear at press time, when the hearings into the charges would
begin.

Meanwhile, local investigators are still awaiting the outcome of the
trial of alleged Bahamian drug kingpin, Samuel Knowles, who is on
trial in the United States on drug trafficking charges.

The director of public prosecutions has said that when the Knowles
case is completed, the American, Bahamian and Canadian investigators
may share evidence which could lead to charges against local police
personnel.

Knowles was arrested in Miami after lengthy investigations in which
American, Canadian, Bahamian and Jamaican investigators
participated.

Sources close to those investigations told the Sunday Observer that
the investigators were likely to request the extradition of senior
Jamaican cops and other "high ranking officials".