No evidence cops involved in lock-up break-in
George Town Police Station evidence lock-up
(CNS): Acting Deputy Governor Gloria McField-Nixon has said that there is no evidence to support previous allegations made by former police commissioner David Baines that corrupt officers were involved in the break-in at the police lock-up in the George Town Police Station yard in 2015. Almost 60 kilos of cocaine and ganja were stolen from under the noses of the RCIPS when thieves broke into the container which at the time was used to store evidence.
At first police management denied that the locker had been burgled, but later Baines had suggested that police could have been involved. However, no officers have ever been charged in connection with the still missing drug haul.
Answering a question from the independent member for George Town Central, Kenneth Bryan, the acting deputy governor walked back the comments made by Baines in 2015 and said that an internal investigation into the break-in could not substantiate rumours that the incident must have involved rogue cops.
McField-Nixon said that despite extensive investigations, including reviewing over 100 hours of CCTV footage, making around 18 arrests and several interviews of potential suspects, the case had not been solved and it remained open.
She said that a file had been submitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions on one of the suspects, who was not a police officer, but the office did not recommend charges. However, during the investigation police did arrest and charge known offenders for other drug case unrelated to the lock-up break-in, she noted.
McField-Nixon emphasised the current position that the allegations made by Baines were purely speculative and the investigation had turned up nothing to substantiate the claim of police involvement.
But she accepted that, given the concerns that his comments had raised in the community, there was room to publicise that information to reassure the people and help rebuild trust. She also insisted that no one was above the law and had police been involved, it would have been taken seriously, but on this occasion there was no evidence to support such allegations.
Dead man tell no tales.
Atleast they destroyed the last batch the found immediately before it had a chance to hit the streets. Wink Wink!
People are acting as if this was Fort Knox? A container witha chain and padlock behind a fence..You only need a bolt cutter and a pair of eyes.
WaYaSay? Shocker ….. Who did the article say did this investigation? Actually the article does not say who conducted the investigation but I “suspect” it was the police.
Three years and not one charge laid against anyone for this MAJOR crime of $millions in illegal drugs?
One would think that priority number two of the RCIPS (Catching the thieves being number one) would have been to intercept this vast quantity of drugs before they are fed to our youth, yet I have seen no arrest and forfeiture of these drugs among the local drug dealers.
Surely the RCIPS has full descriptions and photos of everything inventoried in their evidence storage container, yet they have not managed to unearth one single package of what used to be their own drugs. This alone would have been evidence enough to arrest and convict anyone found in possession of any part of the stolen drugs, of being involved with the theft…….. yet nothing.
Nothing, nil, nada, zero evidence that anyone in the island was involved in this break-in of the police evidence lock-up, therefore the investigation concludes that no inside police personnel were involved?
Please, please, pray tell us what is the evidence that no RCIPS personnel were involved. Inquiring citizens want to know.
WaYaSay
he may have to open it, after the powder is UK drug of choice.
Yep and it would seem you have been taking it. How are the fairies today?
Please answer this, cctv and nothing recorded. Did the drugs just grow wings and fly away? Who had access to these tapes on a daily basis. Lie detector tests to all involved. Whoever was responsible fore securing those drugs along with the cctv monitoring service should have been canned. This is too serious even for the Cayman rug to cover up. This is downright disgraceful.
The bigger the money the higher up it goes.
McField-Nixon needs to get a reality check. Pathetic excuse.
I’m not complaining – I’m high as a kite!
If you’re still high off product that was stolen in 2015 then you may either want to seek medical help or share some with me.
It was Dr. Evil and Mini Me. Alden Powers is going to stop them before they destroy the world…mwah…mwahahaha….for one million dollars…
There’s no other way to describe events.
Just Another Day in Absurdistan
“In addition to pursuing the culprits of this break-in and theft, we are reviewing internal controls and procedures with respect to the handling and storage of evidence and the actions of those responsible for following them”
“Someone’s clearly given information internally about where those drugs are supposed to be or will be. That’s one side. Secondly, I’ve got a criminal investigation against suspects who have been identified,” Mr. Baines said.
“In the course of this investigation, detectives examined over 105 hours of CCTV footage, executed 14 search warrants, and uncovered multiple strains of drug dealing around the island,” the RCIPS statement, issued on behalf of Deputy Commissioner Kurt Walton, read. “Eight people were arrested and charged with over forty drug-related offences”.
Meanwhile, in Dec 2017, drug parcels washed up by Morritt’s and were reported to police…shortly afterwards (and before police arrive) a masked machete man showed up to retrieve it.
You can’t make this stuff up!
BS! We aint buying it!
I bought some, and it was class A chit! Tks RCIPS!
And the republicans in the US just came back and concluded no collusion with Trump campaign and Russia… you can’t investigate your own!
You forgot to mention that Dinnie Whoppers backed them up on it.
of course not … ya’all basically said “police can do no wrong, NO MATTER WHAT. so really Mr. Commissioner … What ya think? of course they had no involvement. BUT either way! Someone had to let someone into that evidence room, so if it wasnt your POLICE, who was it? no fingerprints i reckon …
It is all about top civil servants protecting the top civil servants all of the time. The chief officer for the portfolio of civil service and the deputy governor is great on that all other civil servants have to follow the protocols the protocols that are for stoping civill servants whistle blowers that want to stop the corruption making them look like they are the problem by running them up in down like idiots in the civil service so that they can not get their jobs done to get the corruption broken-up or mashed up it is worst especially when the top civil servants is in the corrruption or is the problem.
Maybe no evidence but they’re the only suspects.
of course not…and the fiasco at the dump??????
Poor lady, please cut her some slack as she is merely acting in a position that is already held by an actor. The Governor is not here and the Ms. Nixon has been asked to reply because the actor is also acting for the Governor.
OH REALLY???!!!
This doesn’t sound like, “We know what we’re doing and the situation is under control.”
This sounds more like, “We don’t know what happened, can’t figure it out, and don’t want to take the blame. Wasn’t us.”
Anyone who believes it wasn’t an inside job, I have some golden marl to sell to you.
the policeman on required “leave” told his friend at the bar and then they called their friends to do the job.
.
cops investigating cops……just another day in wonderland….
It’s like finding the cookie jar empty in a room full of children and they all deny taking from the jar.
The problems won’t go away using the same failed tactics over and over, greed,drugs,violent crime needs to be tackled at the core of society, inclusion, community
“Around 18 arrests”…. Any related convictions Mrs. McField-Nixon?
What would be worse?:
1 – The police actually not being involved but the island having professional criminals around that are not scared of the authorities, leave no evidence or leads and have subsequently outsmarted and evaded the authorities at all turns leading to no arrests and no suspects for the investigation.
or
2 – The police being involved on some level in an inside job, and then covering up the situation with an investigation (possibly) run by the same persons who committed or assisted in the committing of the crime in the first place.
Question: Why was an outside group or persons not involved in the investigation,why was this seemingly handled in-house?
We saw with the police involved shooting last year that officers from another jurisdiction were brought into for the investigation and we see now in a similar but different situation with the current magistrate in court for DUI that another magistrate has been brought in to oversee the proceedings.
Why was the same not done for the robbery?
I hope you run for office, if you can. I always like your comments.
He already did. Didn’t end well.
I agree with you, but would caution that drug cartels, if present here, are not afraid of authorities. Look at them in Mexico, they corrupt police where they can, kill them where they can’t and have resources to do the most amazingly despicable things, including having submarines…Unlikely, I grant you, but not to be dismissed here. As for outside police force, I would say only from the UK. My visits to and friends in Bermuda tell me that the local police there are bent. One had his car smashed into by a drunk politico. The police were around my friends house later tell him to drop the case or be “exported.”
Tell me again, who did the recent investigating?
The police investigated the shortcomings of and within the police department and then came back to the table with nothing to show for it
What a surprise
People who are in higher positions in government will always protect cover-up for each other no matter what because they do not want anyone else too take away their positions, big salaries and their power. They just want to ride the system too pieces abuse it.
Then Ms McField -Dixon, if there’s no evidence to support the allegations , then why hasn’t the real criminals been caught yet some 3 years later . That is pretty poor that they can’t solve robbery that happens under their nose and on their watch . So something smells fishy .
OMG what did I just read? What a pathetic attempt at spin from the Mrs. Nixon and the Deputy Governor’s office
If it’s that easy to steal drugs from the secure lock up at GT Central police station Gloria McField and Franz Manderson should be even more worried about public perception and confidence in RCIPS. SMH
Lets get right back to the basics here. Important evidence including high value drugs, have for years been stored in an old shipping container in the yard behind Central Police Station, in plain view of anyone wishing to peep through the old steel gate in the carpark. The physical security of that yard area has been an utter disgrace for many years, and I will bet that the cctv system has been no better. It is a joke and total embarassment that this country has expected the RCIP to function with that situation for so many years. Regardless of what may have happened to the drugs in question, the real culprit in all this is the office responsible for the security of the Cayman Islands, and that is most definately not an office occupied or held by our elected representatives. The lack of investment in security, and the related infrastructure, is an absolute disgrace, just as in the case of our court buildings. How much longer is Cayman to put up with this governmental administrative incompetence?
Forever???
David Baines is wrong and non-police officers like Chief Officer is right about criminal investigations well please answer this Mrs. McField-Nixon who had access and who did it? Are we really supposed to believe that Mrs. McField-Nixon is more familiar with how the RCIPS operates the staff and the attitudes of officers than former COP David Baines? This makes a mockery of the situation and compounds the insult to the public.
Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, just as we expected and sure we really feeling the trust now … Not!
Bahahahah….haha