IN JAMAICA: Police deny mass burial site claim in East Kingston, but......The ex-gangster had told the Sunday Observer that gunmen, assisted by rogue policemen, have been killing people and burying their bodies in the vicinity of a sand mine in Eastern Kingston.

THE police on Saturday denied the existence of a mass burial site in East Kingston, saying that its "intensive investigations" and "days of thorough searches" yielded no human remains.

However, the Jamaica Observer can report that the police went to the area only one day and they were not equipped to dig deep to determine the veracity of the claims made by a former gangster.

A police dog sniffs for bodies in this
 hole dug by members of the security
 forces during a search of a sand mine
in East Kingston last Friday.
 (PHOTOS: MICHAEL GORDON)

According to the police force's Corporate Communications Unit, the police high command ordered the investigation in response to the January 26 Sunday Observer lead story that reported the claims of the former gang member.

The ex-gangster had told the Sunday Observer that gunmen, assisted by rogue policemen, have been killing people and burying their bodies in the vicinity of a sand mine in Eastern Kingston.

The gunmen, he said, are based between the East Kingston community of Rockfort, and the adjoining Harbour View in East Rural St Andrew. The former gangster took the Sunday Observer to the area, called 'Crusher', and pointed to the general area where, he said, bodies were buried.

However, on Saturday, the police said they were "refuting the existence of any such site".

"After the article was published, the Police High Command instructed senior detectives of the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) to carry out an intensive investigation into the allegations, employing assets from the Forensic Scenes of Crime and the Canine Divisions," the Corporate Communications Unit said. more