Dancehall music producer Linval “Shab Don” Thompson Jr was granted bail on Wednesday for the police bribery charges he is facing in relation to an illegal gun found in his car last month.
The producer was granted bail in the sum of $450,000 when he appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court in Half-Way-Tree.
The 31-year-old is facing bribery charges as well as illegal possession of guns and ammunition. According to prosecutors, Shab Don was stopped in Old Harbour, St. Catherine, along with an associate, Romaro Scott, and detained.
Prosecutors allege that Shab Don offered a policeman who had found a gun under the mat of the driver’s side of the car in which Shab Don was the driver, two million dollars with the request to make the firearm disappear.
Police later said that the gun was stolen from the Atlanta Police Department in Georgia, United States, in 2018. It’s unclear how the gun was smuggled into Jamaica.
Shab Don is being represented by attorney Donahue Martin who confirmed his release on Thursday. Martin is insisting that his client is innocent.
“We are denying the allegations that this conversation happened, and we are prepared to defend ourselves,” Martin told the Jamaica Observer.
Shab Don is slated to return to court on January 20, 2022, in relation to the gun charges.
Shab Don and his co-accused Scott, 22, have been in police custody since October 14.
Scott is being represented by high-profile attorney Tom Tavares-Finson, QC.
According to a police report, members of the Specialised Operations SWAT team searched a vehicle the two producers were traveling in and found the illegal gun. They were on South Street in Old Harbour. Both were subsequently charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Police previously said they were testing the weapon to see if it had been used in any crimes locally in Jamaica.
Both men appeared in the Gun Court jurisdiction of the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston on November 10 to answer to the charges in which Scott pleaded guilty to the firearm and ammunition charges while Shab Don pleaded not guilty.
Shab Don was granted bail in the sum of $250,000 but was shortly after slapped with the bribery charge and re-arrested.
Both men are to reappear in the Gun Court jurisdiction of the Home Circuit Court to answer the gun charges on December 2.
Shab Don has worked with some of Dancehall’s biggest names, including Vybz Kartel’s “Any Weather”, Squash’s “Money Fever”, “Shub Out” by Teejay and “Money We Love” by Chronic Law, Squash, and Vybz Kartel.
The producer has also been allegedly linked to the criminal underworld in Montego Bay.
Meanwhile, Shab Don is celebrating his release from jail with one of Vybz Kartel’s hits, “Bail For Me”, for which he posted a clip of it on his Instagram page.
