Corrupt policemen have been taking ganja seized from people for themselves and selling it to drug dealers, The WEEKEND STAR investigations have uncovered.

It was discovered that many lawmen and women, instead of handing over the drugs to the authorities, smoke it for themselves or sell it to players in the local market.

In one of our undercover investigations, THE WEEKEND STAR was among a group when policemen stopped a motorist along a popular highway in rural Jamaica. The cops had received word that drugs from a popular dealer was to be transported in a certain type vehicle. The vehicle was stopped, the weed taken and the driver told to tell his boss it was payback for the money he had shortchanged the cops when they had sold him ganja.

On another occasion, THE WEEKEND STAR saw policemen hanging around with men from a popular inner city community, smoking weed and looking at some of the guns the men had. One of the policemen proudly claimed that he had seized some ganja and a firearm from a shotta and asked if the men were interested in buying either or both.

"This is worst than highway robbery," drug pusher Calvin Blaketold THE WEEKEND STAR as he recalled how a police team took some weed from his stall in a upper St Andrew community, and told him to walk away and never look back.

"Where did my drugs end up? Was it destroyed or handed over to the people dem weh fi get it?" he asked, saying he firmly believes his three pounds of ganja was distributed back in the streets. He said there was only one reason why he was not arrested, and it was because the cops took the drugs for themselves.

Shark, a Corporate Area drug dealer, revealed that he has bought from and sold ganja to police many times. Shark said the police will keep spliffs and smaller quantities of the drugs for themselves but will sell him up to four pounds. "Now and again dem bring it and drop it off and then dem circle back fi collect di money," he revealed. "A nuh every police have a problem with weed enuh."

He declined to say how much he paid the cops for the drug, but confirmed that many have even smoked it in his presence.

Efforts to speak with assistant commissioner Justine Felice, head of the police's Anti-Corruption Branch, proved futile yesterday, but a senior officer at the unit told THE WEEKEND STAR they have received many complaints of cops taking away drugs and other items and making no arrests.

"Complaints of this nature are not new because officers have been apprehended and charged in the past," the senior officer said. "If a person is caught by the police with the drug and not arrested and charged the persons should take a note of the badge number(s) or the service vehicle number including the time and place the incident occurred, and make a formal report."

Names changed