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MARCH 29 TH - APRIL 5 TH, 2014
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
News
CARIBBEAN
Cayman Islands businessman arrested in Puerto Rico for drugs and money laundering in a sting operation
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.S. Homeland Security investigators arrested Caymanian businessman Bryce Gilroy Merren earlier this month in connection with what U.S. federal court records allege was an attempt to set up a money laundering operation to cover up planned drug smuggling activities. The arrest was reported in U.S. court records on March 5. Mr. Merren was expected to appear in a Puerto Rican court Friday, charged in connection with a criminal complaint with conspiracy to distribute narcotics and money laundering under U.S. criminal code sections 21 and 18, respectively. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the U.S. A probable cause affidavit, filed by Homeland Security Special Agent Harry Schmidt, alleges that Mr. Merren met at different times with two undercover federal agents who posed as accomplices in setting up a drug smuggling operation in Puerto Rico. The records allege that Mr. Merren intended to use certain business interests in the Cayman Islands and the southern Caribbean island of Curacao to help launder the money. The criminal complaint is not an indictment in federal court and is not proof of any wrongdoing. U.S. federal investigators are required to file such affidavits prior to arresting someone suspected of criminal offenses. Mr. Merren’s brother, Randy, was contacted Friday for comment. Randy Merren confirmed he was in Puerto Rico trying to sort out attorney
Caymanian businessman Bryce Gilroy Merren arrangements for his brother. He declined to make any statements on Bryce Merren’s behalf. According to Special Agent Schmidt’s probable cause affidavit, U.S. federal investigators in San Juan, Puerto Rico, received confidential information in July 2013 that Bryce Merren was “seeking to purchase approximately 3,000 kilograms of cocaine and establish a U.S. bank account in order to deposit drug proceeds and make an initial payment for the transportation of narcotics.” The records did not state from where the alleged narcotics were to be transported. The first meeting between Mr. Merren and an undercover U.S. agent, referred to as UCA1 in the court documents, was held on July 20, 2013.
During the meeting, investigators said Mr. Merren “suggested” conducting a narcotics sea transfer in September after returning to the Cayman Islands from a boat show in Florida. “It was agreed that an initial 1,000 kilograms of cocaine would be transferred in the first smuggling venture and subsequently smuggling ventures of 2,000 and 3,000 kilograms of cocaine,” the probable cause affidavit states. On Aug. 27, 2013, court records reveal that UCA1, Mr. Merren and a second undercover agent [identified as UCA2] posing as a “financial facilitator” met in San Juan. This meeting was held to set up a U.S. account that would assist in the money laundering scheme, investigators said. “[Mr.] Merren stated that he intended to deposit US$400,000 a day into the accounts through the use of commercial merchant machines,” court records state. “The accounts would be used as a guarantee for the narcotics smuggling venture and {Mr.] Merren agreed to coordinate for the narcotics sea transfer to take place on or about November 2013.” Further discussions regarding the bank accounts occurred in September between Mr. Merren, the two undercover agents and a man identified in the court records as an associate of Mr. Merren’s. Arrangements were also made for the planned cocaine transfer around this time. A third meeting was held on Nov. 6, 2013, between Mr. Merren and the two undercover agents, court records
CARICOM chairman to address reparation conference in United States
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EW YORK – Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines will address an international forum in reparations in the United States next month. Gonsalves will deliver the feature address at the April 19 forum titled “Revitalizing the Reparations Movement,” organized by the New York-based Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW). IBW described Gonsalves as “one of the leading voices in the Americas demanding that the former European colonial powers pay reparations to Caribbean and South American countries for centuries of African enslavement, native genocide and colonial exploitation”. The forum will be held in collaboration with the Center for Inner City Studies and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference. IBW said among the specially invited guests will be Detroit’s congressman John Conyers, Sr., dean of the US Congressional Black Caucus, and sponsor of HR-40, the Reparations Study Bill and Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. “A primary goal of the forum is to revitalize the reparations movement in the USA by revisiting the Durban Resolution on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, present-
ing an update on HR-40 and examining the status of CARICOM’s reparations initiative,” IBW said. “We are delighted and honored to have Prime Minister Gonsalves keynote this critical forum on reparations, a subject of fundamental historical justice that is near and dear to the hearts of Black people around the world,” said IBW?s president Dr. Ron Daniels. Director of Chicago’s Inner City Studies, Dr. Conrad Worrill, said “our ancestors will be pleased that the reparations movement is being re-energized from the Caribbean islands. “In demanding reparations, CARICOM is vindicating the vestiges of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade,” he added. CARICOM leaders at their inter-sessional summit in St, Vincent and the Grenadinesearlier this month discussed the reparation issue and hope to have a meeting with European leaders in June. The leaders unanimously adopted a 10-point plan that would seek a formal apology for slavery; debt cancellation from former colonizers, such as Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands; and reparation payments to repair the persisting “psychological trauma” from the days of plantation slavery.
state, in order to discuss details of the alleged money laundering scheme. “[Mr.] Merren explained to UCA2 that he has legitimate businesses in the Cayman Islands and Curacao where he receives funds from customers from all over the world that conduct credit card transactions utilizing his businesses’ merchant machines in order to convert foreign currency into U.S. currency,” the probable cause affidavit states. “[Mr.] Merren charges a percentage for the exchange and then wire transfers the bulk amount of the currency back to its correspondent owner. “[Mr.] Merren also prepares purchase receipts for the customers in order to make it seem as if they are purchasing or paying for services,” the court records stated. Court records said it was agreed in December 2013 that Mr. Merren would make an initial down payment to cover “transportation fees for the smuggling venture” and deposit the payment into a personal bank account he established, with the help of UCA2, in Puerto Rico. “It would serve as a guarantee in order to conduct the smuggling venture,” the court records noted. On March 3, 2014, a wire transfer of US$200,000 was made from a Cayman Islands bank account to the U.S. bank account located in Puerto Rico, court records state. “[Mr.] Merren advised UCA2 via BBM [Blackberry] that the US$200,000 would serve as a down payment to facilitate the narcotics smuggling venture.”
EX COP FOUND DEAD IN MOBAY, THROAT SLASHED
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n ex-policeman, who was formerly assigned to the St James Police Division, was found dead at his Cornwall Courts home in Montego Bay thursday morning. His throat was slashed. The dead man, who has been identified as Kirk Palmer, is believed to be 43 years old. He was attached to the Freeport Police Station in Montego Bay up to 2000 when he ran afoul of the law and was sentenced to eight months in prison. “We (the police) got a call, summoning us to his (Palmer’s) home this morning,” said Sergeant Peter Salkey, the police’s Corporate Communications Unit liaison officer for St James. “When we got there, his body was found in a pool of blood with what appeared to be either machete or knife wounds to his throat.” Although the police spent a considerable amount of time at Palmer’s house searching for evidence, Salkey said investigators were not yet in a position to release a statement.
However, persons living in proximity to Palmer’s house said he lived alone and had very few friends. “Is not a man who chat up to a lot of people,” a resident of the area told The Gleaner. “He had friends, but they were mostly outsiders who were not well known.” Palmer’s career in the police force was cut short on December 5, 2000 when he and two colleagues, Corporal Waldron Francis and Constable Curtis Hylton, were arrested and charged after being accused of robbing a musician of J$150,000 and US$10,000. All three policemen were convicted in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court on March 6, 2003, and sentenced to eight months in prison. They all appealed their conviction but, in a 2003 ruling, the Appeal Court threw out their appeal. Efforts to get information on Palmer’s family proved futile, as none of his neighbours or former police colleagues were able to provide any such information.