A man accused of murdering two men following an alleged telemarketing scam that went sour will face the court next week.
The man, Zetroy Jones, a 23-year-old unemployed of Tucker here in St James, has been charged with the murder of Jason Stephenson and Ezekiel Williams.
In the meantime, the police said two other men who were believed to be involved in the alleged fraud scheme were fatally shot by cops in separate shoot-outs last Saturday.
The two, Ricardo Gordon, 20, and Jason Henry, also 20, both of Tucker, St James, were shot and killed by the police in Montego Bay and Westmoreland, respectively. The police said a firearm was taken from the body of each following the gunfight.
According to Inspector Paul Bernard, the deputy crime chief in St James, the telecommunication scam was widespread in the city and has been of major concern to the police. He said that a number of persons, including gangsters, were involved in the illegal activity.
In the meantime, police sources said the mastermind behind the scam, Jason Stephenson, had connections with employees inside the call centres of the Montego Bay Free Zone, which collected money on behalf of persons involved in sweepstake and other games.
Stephenson, the police sources said, obtained the names and addresses of telemarketing customers who purchase sweepstake tickets online, then passes them on to his cronies.
The racketeers would then contact these customers by telephone and inform them that they had won the lottery. These persons would then be requested to pay processing fees.
However, last month things took a sour turn after Stephenson allegedly passed information to one of his accomplices who had made arrangement to collect a US$6, 000 "processing fee" from a customer.
It is alleged that when the person turned up at the Western Union branch to collect the money, he was informed that another person had already done so.
Stephenson was later tortured by men who severed his head, then buried him.