And while police continue to search - they will also have to re-assess their relationship with leaders like Edwin Drive Flowers - who is an active member of the LIU.
The commissioner described the complicated relationship:
Jules Vasquez
"Will the Minister of Home Affairs extend the S.O.E.?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I'm not sure at this time, but I wish that it would be extended. I do believe that there is still more that we need to do in terms of carrying out our necessary investigation against these gang members to see what we can do to put some of them away for a very long time."
"I believe that some of these young men, as much as we are trying with them, they don't want to change. And the society is suffering for it."
Jules Vasquez
"Are you able to speak about the police's relationship with Edwin Drive Flowers? We know that he is a prominent gang leader. We know he's someone that has been working with the L.I.U. We know that he's someone who has worked with you. And these are complicated individuals. And explain to me, how is it that we reach where we are with him, where, you feel like the relationship is unsalvageable or irretrievable?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"As I've said, Jules, the L.I.U. is a vehicle that we are using to see how we can change the minds and hearts of some of these street figures. And I can see where in some instances it is working. The L.I.U. is not a shield for anybody. And so I don't want no one to believe that because a particular person is a member of L.I.U. or works with L.I.U. that they are immune from criminal liability. And so, yes, Drive is an employee of L.I.U. or he works closely with L.I.U. He's one of the persons in the program and we have tried our best to work with him and it goes back to what I have said, that we police with a double-edged sword, where we offer the soft or the dull side to those persons who demonstrate that they want to change, but once they continue to perpetrate criminal acts and we have to use a sharp side of the sword and cut them out."
Jules Vasquez
"Might you all have been nurturing that relationship for too long and been offering the soft side when persons associated with PIV were using those same guns to commit murder out there while you all are here with the soft and conciliatory approach?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I would not say that Jules because the truth is we have had a number of SOEs and in most of those SOEs the PIV members goes up. I think this would be the fourth SOE that Drive and Battery would be a part of so it goes to show that we have not been as you would want to say cozy with them."
The three persons found on the island are 41 year old Edwin Flowers, 32 year old Kenyon Dominguez, and 25 year old Gaston Barrow - who is also with the LIU.
