These laptop computers, cellular phones and a palm hand-held device were seized by the Flying Squad in the Corporate Area last week. The police are asking the rightful owners to go to the Flying Squad and claim their goods. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

Six men are now in police custody in connection with a series of break-ins in the Barbican, Shortwood and Half-Way-Tree areas of Kingston following operations by the Flying Squad in the Corporate Area last week.

The police Friday displayed seven laptop computers, 11 cellular phones and a palm hand-held device, which were seized during the operation and appealed to persons whose homes were broken into recently to visit the Flying Squad on East Queen Street to identify and claim their goods.

"We are appealing to members of the public to come and claim their belongings if their homes were broken into," Sergeant Dorel Jackson of the Constabulary Communication Network said Friday.

Police believe the six men, whose identities have been withheld pending identification parades, are part of a major house-breaking ring that has been targetting houses in affluent areas in recent weeks.

"We believe we have cracked a massive ring of thieves who have been breaking into houses both during the day and night," an investigator said.

The police recovered the stolen computers and phones at different premises after the arrest of a man two Saturdays ago at Water Lane in downtown Kingston.

The man reportedly led the cops to other locations and admitted that he had broken into several homes.
"He was the one who showed us the homes he broke into and led us to other places where the stolen goods were," the investigator said.

Three of the men were held in Downtown Kingston while the others were held in Half-Way-Tree, police said.