BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, May 14.2018 – THE Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) and the Police High Command (PHC) have issued a statement emphasizing that Immigration Authorities or other Law Enforcement agencies in St. Kitts and Nevis, at no point in time, received information that Jamaican fugitive, 23-year-old Fitzroy Andre Coore was a wanted man.
Media reports surfaced last Friday (May 11) that the fugitive from Clarendon, Jamaica, was hiding out in St. Kitts and Nevis, but was apprehended in Antigua at the V.C. Bird International Airport after disembarking a flight from St. Kitts on Friday. However, local law enforcement officials at that time, had stated that they were unaware of that.
In the statement issued yesterday (May 13), the law enforcement body said that no information regarding Coore was passed on to them.
“The Chief Immigration Officer and the Police High Command would like to make it very clear that at no point in time prior to, or during his stay in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, was any information passed on to our Immigration Authorities or other Law Enforcement agencies in St. Kitts and Nevis from any regional or international institution with regards to him being wanted in Jamaica,” the statement said.
The statement said the information was brought to the attention of the both the CIO and PHC after an arrest was made during a joint operation between the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda and Immigration Officials at the Airport in Antigua.
The details stated that investigations so far has revealed that Coore arrived in St. Kitts on a flight from Antigua on January 18, 2018 and departed St. Kitts on May 11, 2018 for Antigua. It added that it was not until April that the authorities in Antigua were not notified of Coore’s status and were put on watch and “because of the information the authorities there received, they were prepared to arrest Mr. Coore once he disembarked the aircraft”.
It further added that up to the time of Coore’s arrest, St. Kitts and Nevis authorities were still not notified of his wanted status.
“We consider regional cooperation on Border Security and other security related matters integral to ensuring that the perpetrators of crime do not find refuge in any other territory, including St. Kitts and Nevis. Such cooperation is of paramount importance in creating safe communities and ensuring that justice is served across the region,” the statement said.
