Letter of the Day | We need to get aggressive in stemming the drug trade
Published:Saturday | February 2, 2019 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
It must trouble law-abiding, Jamaicans that during 2018, our country continued to be the largest Caribbean supplier of marijuana to the USA, Canada, and the UK. Equally troubling is the fact that Jamaica continues to be a transit point for cocaine from South America destined for North America.
It is fair to assume that Jamaica’s drug trafficking is fuelled by organised crime, international gang activity, and the perceived high levels of local police and government corruption.
Given the fact that our country has the sixth-highest homicide rate in the world and that most of these homicides are the result of the use of illegal firearms, shouldn’t we be demanding a more purposeful approach in stemming the flow of these weapons into our country? After all, illicit drugs must certainly be a major means of exchange for trafficked firearms/weapons.
We know that there are several means of transporting illegal drugs to North America and the UK from Jamaica, but I believe that the drugs come mainly through our two international airports on commercial airlines.
During 2018, for instance, the media reported several cases of commercial airline passengers being arrested while trying to traffic drugs (marijuana and cocaine) through our international airports. While it is gratifying that these ‘exporters’, or mules, were caught, it is of small comfort that we never hear of their handlers or the masterminds behind their nefarious undertakings. If these bosses are local, we must question why they wield so much power and are never caught or exposed. Are they untouchables? Who is Jamaica’s equivalent of El Chapo (the Mexican drug lord) because there has to be one or more based on such a booming business in the illicit drug trade conducted out of Jamaica?
BOTTOM RUNG OF THE NETWORK
It appears quite unlikely that those caught attempting to export illicit drugs are operating as independent agents, but rather belong to the bottom rung of the network involved in the trade. Undoubtedly, there are links to those countries to which drugs are being sent. And is the connection not likely to involve people exchanging illegal drugs for the illegal weapons that flood our criminal gangs locally?
So we have reported the cases of those caught attempting to traffic illegal drugs, but what about illegal drugs that make it on board commercial airliners flying out of our airports to destinations such as North America?
In these cases, is enough effort being made to track down, arrest both the sender and the intended receiver, and to try to dismantle the network, or are the Jamaican authorities not interested because the evidence is abroad and no culprits are caught?
One sincerely hopes that any crime plan developed for Jamaica will aggressively address the particular threat the illicit drug trade continues to pose for our country.
Certainly, it seems that any efforts to stem the drug trade, especially where it is connected to the exchange of illegal weapons, are not at all effective and that drug trafficking is growing daily. Failure to identify and arrest those involved in drug trafficking serves only as further incentive for the drug lords to continue expanding their illegal empires.
COLONEL ALLAN DOUGLAS