Old Harbour cops nabbed man who issued bomb threat

His identity is being withheld for the time being in keeping with force procedures before formal charges can be laid.

The suspect was arrested about midday and remains in detention following a highly intelligence driven operation led by the police.

Confirming the development with Old Harbour News, DSP Mark Harris, head of the police sub-division of Old Harbour, said: “He was held in a community in OId Harbour and is now in custody and is being interrogated.”

DSP Harris said a full update will be provided through the usual channels of the police force later today.

Activities in the resort town were yesterday brought a standstill in the immediate vicinity of the Rubis Ocho Rios petrol station at the intersection of DaCosta Drive and Milford Road after the manager received a call about 9:00 am that a bomb was planted on the premises and will be detonated if a ransom of JMD$20 million was not transferred to a bank account by 7:00 pm.

A team of bomb experts from the nation’s national security forces was immediately summoned to the location where a thorough search of the premises was conducted.

In the end the team found nothing and after being satisfied that the location was safe to resume normal operations deemed the scary voice message to be nothing but a hoax.

But if this was just a prank by the person who masterminded this unwise plot, it triggered an unnecessary attention that he will most likely live to regret as it put in motion the start of an investigation by the police who relentlessly pursued all possible channels to find the mastermind behind this bomb threat.

Now in the next few hours and days to come, the jokes will be on him and the likelihood of a lifelong of shame and regret.