Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds has or­dered the de­ten­tion of two in­di­vid­u­als un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2024.

The men, iden­ti­fied as Har­ris “Ba­ba” O’Con­nor, al­so known as “Onion,” of Cunu­pia, and Kevin Payn­ter, of Tu­na­puna, were tak­en in­to cus­tody due to their al­leged in­volve­ment in or­gan­ised crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties.

Ac­cord­ing to the of­fi­cial de­ten­tion or­ders, O’Con­nor has been linked to a crim­i­nal or­gan­i­sa­tion re­spon­si­ble for mul­ti­ple vi­o­lent gun-re­lat­ed crimes and ar­son at­tacks in Cunu­pia and sur­round­ing ar­eas. Au­thor­i­ties claim he con­spired with oth­ers and was al­leged­ly plan­ning a pub­lic ex­e­cu­tion on the in­struc­tions of the group’s in­car­cer­at­ed leader.

Mean­while, Payn­ter has been iden­ti­fied as a key shoot­er for the Re­sis­tance Or­gan­ised Crime Gang (OCG), which has been in­volved in high-pow­ered firearm at­tacks and mur­ders in pub­lic ar­eas.

Of­fi­cials al­lege he has been ac­tive­ly re­cruit­ing in­di­vid­u­als and had plans to en­gage in re­tal­ia­to­ry vi­o­lence against law en­force­ment of­fi­cers.

Both men are be­ing held at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre in San­ta Rosa, Ari­ma.