By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

OUTGOING Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander said the chief investigator in a controversial voice notes probe submitted findings to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions last week and is awaiting the DPP’s review and recommendation.

Commissioner Fernander, who promised to report to the public on the matter before the end of the year, said authorities are still on track to meet this timeline.

The investigation surrounds voice notes that purported to capture a quid-pro-quo arrangement involving a senior police officer, a lawyer and two murdered men, Michael Fox Jr and Dino Smith.

The conversation on the voice notes centred around a $1.5m airport bank car heist in November 2023. Fox Jr and Smith were suspects in that matter but were never charged. Two other men, Oral Roberts, 34, and Akeil Holmes, 26, were charged in connection with the robbery. Roberts was killed in the Fox Hill area last month.

Michael Johnson, the head of the Central Investigations Department, took garden leave as authorities investigated.

Commissioner Fernander has said the Security and Intelligence Branch of the police force is investigating the matter. He said the Police Complaints Inspectorate, a little-known body that has traditionally lacked the resources to perform its duties, would supervise the SIB’s investigation. He later revealed that the United Kingdom National Crime Agency and the FBI would help with the investigation.

Michael Fox Sr, the father of Fox Jr, told The Tribune over the summer that his son gave him the voice notes and told him to release the recordings if he died. He said he was not behind the release of the tapes. Sandra Smith, the mother of Dion Smith, said her son also informed her about the voice notes and their significance, but she never got them.

The matter has gripped the public’s attention partly because of other events that have occurred involving people connected to the voice notes. Days after Sylvens Metayer, a man living in the US who considers himself a whistleblower, seemingly released the voice notes, he was shot during a Facebook Live and survived the incident.

Roberts, meanwhile, was killed a week after meeting officers probing the matter, according to his mother.

Commissioner Fernander provided no further details but said investigators “had completed a number of lines of inquiries” and are happy with their investigation.