Philipsburg:--- The Federal Detectives (Lands Recherche) headed by Ademar Doran under the supervision of Chief Public Prosecutor Hans Mos is currently investigating seven cases all of which were approved by the Attorney General said Mos in an invited comment. Mos said the cases that are currently being investigated are the Tortola mishap which involved human smuggling from St. Maarten that left eight people dead.The detectives are also busy gathering information on the Buncamper case, the case of the Tourist Bureau which involves Regina Labega, other senior civil servants and a politician but unless all the information is compiled, a decision cannot be taken as to whether or not these persons will ever be prosecuted.
The team is busy investigating the Pointe Blanche Prison on two different levels, first the federal detectives wants to find out how the prisoner Omar Smith better known as Chucky Nelson escaped while at the facility and they are also investigating the incident where a prisoner's money was stolen while in safe keeping at Pointe Blanche Prison. Mos also indicated that a foreign country requested assistance from St. Maarten which the federal detectives are also working on and that makes the amount of work for the meager staff too much. He said that there are times when the detectives work on two or three cases at a time while some of the cases just have to wait until there is more manpower or when the detectives here are free.
The Chief Prosecutor said the department is currently understaffed since they only have five people working while there is a need for 16 persons. He said right now the Lands Recherché has three detectives all of whom are new to St. Maarten and have to provide top quality reports from the investigations they conduct which are based strictly on the law.
Therefore because of the lack of manpower Mos is the one who decides which of the investigations that are stacked up to be investigated gets priority. Already Mos has removed the case of vote buying involving the United Peoples Party and some police officers and placed it to the bottom of the stack because for him it is not a high priority case. Asked if he will ever get to the case file and if an investigation will ever be done Mos said he does not want to give predictions in none of the cases. While the detectives are busy gathering information on the Buncamper's file which involves the sale of the economic rights of government lease land and that of the Tourist Bureau that has Regina Labega on a leach when it comes to her career, Mos said he cannot and will not say when these investigations will begin rolling.
BTA Scandal Report Expected by July 1--- Case Might go to Court after the Summer.
As for the investigation surrounding the Brooks Tower Accord which kicked off on January 21st 2011, the report on that case is still not ready and the prosecutor's office may get the report by July 1 2011 Mos said. Mos explained that the BTA report took longer than expected but his office will not do anything on the case until after the summer of 2011.
While the prosecutor's office is waiting on the report to take a decision on BTA investigation which rocked the St. Maarten community leaving at least seven person's lives in shambles after spending days if not weeks in jail as suspects of bribery, forgery and human smuggling. One of those persons is Evelyn Hodge who has worked for at least seven former Lt. Governors of St. Maarten.
Hodge is currently at home awaiting the outcome of the ongoing investigation to see if she will ever return to her job as a civil servant, besides that, she has to remain content with a salary slash while having her daughter in a university abroad to support.
The BTA extension project which was continued by the current Minister of Justice and the ongoing investigation also have a number of persons waiting on the outcome of this investigation to see if the Minister of Justice will ever grant them a residency permit for St. Maarten.
Unsolved and Solved Murder Cases --- 50% of Cases Solved for 2011---Record in 6 years for St. Maarten --- Afoo Investigation flawed by Investigators.
As for the crime situation on St. Maarten, Mos said it's the first time in the past five or six years that St. Maarten was able to solve 50% of its murder investigations within days. So far this year six persons were killed at the hands of criminals. The cases that were solved are the Cheetah Moon (Death of L. Guillevin, Mullet Bay, February 26th), Learning Unlimited (Death of F. Louis, Chopin Road, March 4th), Cake House (Death of E. Nova Valdez, Cake House Road, March 4th). While the investigators are still busy working on the murder case of Amador Jones, Miguel Arrindell of Cappuccino Bar and Emilio De Leon Reyes who was gunned down in his home in Dutch Quarter.
Despite the progress, the community of St. Maarten is still waiting to see if the investigators would ever solve the murder of David Eustace Priest who was gunned down while in his van in the presence of an eye witness in Oyster Pond. Mos said he is of the opinion that there are persons on St. Maarten who have information on this particular killing but people he said are not coming forward with the information which would help the investigators close in on the killers.
Another case that rocked the community of St. Maarten is the murder the owner of Afoo Supermarket in Dutch Quarter which according to our sources said was bungled by the detectives that investigated the case. SMN News learnt that local police officers tried to assist the RST when they were investigating this case by bringing forward some Jamaicans who saw the killers escaping. The source said that the Jamaicans even led the investigators to the gun that was used to kill the well known businessman but the investigators heading the case deported the eyewitnesses. The source said that when the informants led the detectives to the shot gun that was used to kill the owner of Afoo, the RST thought that the weapon they found was not the murder weapon but that was proven when ballistics was done on the faulty shot gun. However, by the then, those that had valuable information and could have assisted in solving this brutal murder were shipped out of St. Maarten because they were residing on the island illegally. When asked about this, Mos said he does not want to divulge information on the case because it is still open. Mos said that the gun found by the investigators is the gun that killed the owner of Afoo supermarket, he stressed that the case is still being investigated and hopes that persons in the community that have information that can help police solve this case will come forward.
The prosecutor's office with the assistance of other islands exhausted their resources when they put together the TKO team to investigate the murder of Clemencia Julot who was raped and stabbed multiple times but to date the killers could not be found. Investigators will not reopen this case unless they get new and convincing leads. Another case the prosecutor's office exhausted money and time on was the Leta Lynn Cordes case which is now placed on the cold case files. In 2007, the body of a Spanish man was discovered in the water behind Francis Bar on A.T. Illidge road, he was buried without an autopsy conducted and to date his bereaved relatives do not know his exact cause of death. While they are sure someone killed their loved one, the lack of a proper investigation has left his mother and other close relatives without hope of getting justice.
Several persons have contacted SMN News expressing outrage at the increased amount of crimes especially armed robberies, hold ups and house break ins. Mos said on several occasions that his hands are tied because of the lack of prison cells. He said he presented a proposal to the Minister of Justice which would assist law enforcement to create much needed space but to date the Minister has not taken a decision on how he will secure more cell space. Unless that is done, St. Maarten/St. Martin would have to brace itself with more of these armed robbers who are ahead of the game with the justice system. Should they be caught and arrested they will only spend 26 days in jail before they are back on the streets doing what they do best.
