Cuba
KARYL WALKER, Crime/Court Co-ordinator walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Two teenagers, one of them believed to be the son of a People's National
Party (PNP) councillor, are now behind bars after police seized 1,593
light bulbs they suspect are linked to the Cuban light bulb saga and
recovered a stolen motor vehicle.
According to head of the St Andrew North police division, Superintendent
Anthony Morris, the two teenagers were stopped along Stony Hill Road
during a routine spot check.
"They were driving a grey Totoya Yaris and when we checked we found that
the plates were not consistent with the car. It was discovered that the
car was reported stolen in the St Andrew Central division and the two
were taken into custody," Morris told the Observer as officers counted
the light bulbs last night.
After questioning the teenagers, the cops went to a house in St Andrew
where the teenagers live and found the bulbs, Morris said.
Police say they believe the bulbs are part of a shipment of four million
energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs donated by the Cuban Government.
Former junior minister in the PNP Administration, Kern Spencer, his
personal assistant Coleen Wright and businessman Andrew Chin are out on
bail facing corruption, money laundering and fraud charges in connection
with what has become known as the Cuban light bulb scandal.
In January, the auditor-general reported that about 176,380 of the four
million bulbs, costing about $92 million, could not be found. There are
also allegations that the contracts to distribute the bulbs were
unfairly granted and that Spencer had unlawfully meddled in the
allocation of the contracts.
The distribution project reportedly cost taxpayers $267 million.
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