Sev­en new de­ten­tion or­ders is­sued by Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der yes­ter­day, have in­ten­si­fied the State’s crack­down on or­gan­ised crime, tar­get­ing men iden­ti­fied as key op­er­a­tives in net­works span­ning mul­ti­ple re­gions, with in­tel­li­gence point­ing to their roles in lead­er­ship, co­or­di­na­tion, en­force­ment, re­cruit­ment and drug traf­fick­ing.

Among those de­tained is Joshua “Ketchup” De­onar­ine, who was de­scribed as a shoot­er and en­forcer op­er­at­ing out of Freeport with al­leged links to a gang ac­tive in Cou­va, Cal­i­for­nia and Clax­ton Bay. Au­thor­i­ties say he is in­volved in vi­o­lent op­er­a­tions, in­clud­ing con­spir­a­cy to com­mit mur­der and ex­tor­tion, and warned of a high risk of fur­ther shoot­ings and con­fronta­tions with ri­val groups.

In San­gre Grande, Romell Leza­ma was linked to an or­gan­ised crime group with ac­cess to high-pow­ered firearms and am­mu­ni­tion, with in­tel­li­gence in­di­cat­ing in­volve­ment in ex­tor­tion, ma­li­cious wound­ing and con­tract killings, as well as plans for re­tal­ia­to­ry at­tacks in Va­len­cia and sur­round­ing ar­eas.