(CMR) Jamaican promoter Roy Fowl aka Owen Clarke aka Father Fowl was shot dead on February 22 in Kencot St. Andrew, an area in the Jamaican capital, Kingston. He was 61 years old.
Jamaican-based reporter Abka Fitz-Henley was the first to break the news about Fowl’s death in a series of tweets. Fowl, who in addition to his music career was also a prominent drug smuggler, was shot by two men on motorcycles while he partied with a group of people on a street, Fitz-Henley reported, who obtained a video of Fowl in his final moments:
Fowl died in front of his red Range Rover.
In the late 1990s, Clarke was alleged to have been the leader of an international drug ring for many years, with him said to have led the outfit from his home in Sudbury, north London.
He was convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court in June 2004 for producing, supplying and possessing crack cocaine. Court documents alleged that he used women as ‘mules’ to smuggle the drug from the Caribbean to Britain.
Fowl, who was affiliated with the infamous Yardie gang during his life, was jailed for 13 years in England in 2004. His sentence was later reduced to 11 years. Authorities said that Fowl had been running a drug smuggling ring from his home in the Sudbury neighborhood of London. A police raid on that home yielded more than 100 pounds of cocaine.
During the investigation into Fowl’s criminal activities, British officials said that there had been few instances of violence involving Fowl’s gang. Fowl was asked about this in a 2013 interview where he said, “Well me not a violent man, me know what I was doing was wrong but me do it fi get the good out of it, me never send nuh gun come Jamaica, me never buy nuh man nuh shot and nuh man couldn’t come a mi yard come beg me money fi buy nuh gun or bullet else me run them out a me yard no matter how bad them claim dem is. Me is a man go anywhere in Jamaica, me nuh look behind me, me is not a gansta me is a moggler. Me love life & the girls and me is a people person.”
Though the Jamaica Gleaner reported in 2004 that Fowl was thought to have been involved in the shooting death of DJ Village, a London-based radio DJ who was killed in 2001.
During a hearing in the United Kingdom over the forfeiture of Fowl’s ill-gotten gains, the court heard that in Jamaica, Fowl drove a Jaguar XKA with a personalized license plate reading, “007.” In addition, Fowl was also accused of wearing a diamond-encrusted crucifix necklace that cost $13,000. Fowl told the court that even though he had been successful through his music promotions career, he did not keep financial records or open a bank account. His lavish lifestyle included him burning of £50 notes and leaving price tags on £10,000 designer suits.
The Jamaica Gleaner reports that in 2004, Fowl had three mansions in Jamaica in addition to property in the U.S. and Canada.
Fowl was asked in a 2013 interview why he remained a gangster for so long, his reply was, “The money, the lifestyle and the gyal dem. As me say before, the more u get is the more u want.”
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid