T&T cops expose new Jamaica drug links

Two incidents in Trinidad and Tobago over the past week have underscored claims by local law-enforcement officials of a growing drug link between Jamaica and the twin-island republic.

In one incident, the Trinidadian police smashed a drug-smuggling business where air-conditioning units were being filled with packets of pure cocaine and shipped to Jamaica.

Five persons, including a 30-year-old Jamaican, were arrested in that operation.

According to reports out of Trinidad, after weeks of surveillance, a party of police officers raided a house at an upscale gated community and dismantled an air-conditioning unit where they discovered 21 packets of cocaine worth millions of dollars.

That incident came shortly before a Jamaican, who recently entered Trinidad, was fatally shot in what is believed to be a drug-related incident.

Vincent Powell, a 41-year-old fisherman from Montego Bay, St James, was shot and his body tossed out of a vehicle last Friday.

No comment

Neither Jamaican nor Trinidadian police have commented on the shooting, but a source told The Gleaner that indications are that illegal drugs were at the heart of the killing.

Last October, The Gleaner highlighted the Trinidad-Jamaica drug link after 72 drug swallowers were held by the police attempting to leave the island, with the majority headed for Port-of-Spain.

At that time, the local police reported that because of the increased spotlight on Jamaicans entering the United States and Britain, drug dealers were sending couriers to Trinidad en route to other destinations.

Last June, four persons were held trying to export 123 kilograms of ganja to Trinidad while the Trinidadian coastguard later seized two crocus bags of ganja on a vessel transporting clinker from Jamaica to Trinidad.