Bunting confirms FBI-style anti-crime agency to be created by The #Gleaner National security minister Peter Bunting has confirmed a report carried in todays edition of The Gleaner newspaper that a Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)-style anti-crime agency is to be created on the island. Speaking at a press conference at the Police Officers Club in St Andrew this morning, Bunting said the new entity will be called the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA), retaining the MOCA acronym, and will be headed by Colonel D.T. Edwards of the Jamaica Defence Force. MOCA is being merged with the Anti Corruption Branch of the JCF. The new agency will give us greater reach and increase our capacity to carry out investigations on people of interest, including the police and those in public office. This will in turn produce an enhanced capability to prosecute criminals, Bunting said. He said MOCA and the Anti Corruption Branch have demonstrated their competence, adding that he believes that pooling their collective talents together in a single more capable agency can only improve performance. The officers in both units have been vetted to the highest standards and are trusted and capable, Bunting said. Meanwhile, the minister said the merger is an interim step in a longer-term plan to create a national law enforcement agency, which will be the subject of a future cabinet submission. This agency, he said, will see the police and soldiers being assisted by personnel from government entities particularly the Financial Investigations Division (FID) from the Ministry of Finance, as well as the Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency, Jamaica Customs Department, the Revenue Protection Division, the Registrar Generals Department, and the Tax Administration of Jamaica.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 17:54:38 +0000
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