Caribbean & Central America - March 2006 (ISSN 1741-4458)

On 1 March the US State Department published its annual International Narcotic Control Strategy Report. The report concluded that many Caribbean countries are used as transit points for drugs (predominantly cocaine, heroin and marijuana) travelling from South America to the US and Europe. The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Guyana were identified as "major" transit points and noted that the broad geographical area of the eastern and southern Caribbean as an area of concern. All, with the notable exception of Guyana, were commended on at least co-operating with US anti-narcotics efforts.

Guyana

The report pointed out that interdictions and seizures of drugs in Guyana decreased from 2004 to 2005, but that drugs flow easily through the country's remote uncontrolled borders and coastline. According to publicly reported arrests, authorities recovered only 43kg of cocaine in 2005. This represents a significant decrease from 2004 and 2003, when authorities recovered 269kg and 277kg of cocaine, respectively.

According to the US report, drug traffickers appear to be gaining a significant foothold in Guyana's timber industry. "In 2005, the Guyana Forestry Commission granted a State Forest Exploratory Permit for a large tract of land in Guyana's interior to Aurelius Inc., a company controlled by known drug trafficker Shaheed 'Roger' Khan. Such concessions in the remote interior may allow drug traffickers to establish autonomous outposts beyond the reach of Guyanese law enforcement," the report stated. 

The US Embassy in Guyana estimates that narcotics traffickers earn US$150m annually and possibly much more by trafficking cocaine through Guyana. This amount is equivalent to 20% or more of Guyana's reported gross domestic product. Drug traffickers are thought to use light aircraft to make airdrops in isolated areas and small boats to travel up Guyana's many navigable rivers to pick up supplies from Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname.

Inside the country, narcotics are normally transported to Georgetown by road, water or air and then sent on to the Caribbean, North America or Europe via commercial air carriers or cargo ships. "Go-fast" speed boats may also carry cocaine from Guyana's rivers to mother-ships in the Atlantic, the report said. It acknowledged the creation of the government's ambitious National Drug Strategy Master Plan in June 2005, but said that it had been undermined by the lack of adequate resources for law enforcement, poor co-ordination among law enforcement agencies and a weak judicial system. 

Jamaica

In contrast, the report praised the success of the counter-narcotic Operation Kingfish in Jamaica. According to the INCSR: "Operation Kingfish resulted in the successful seizure of 56 vehicles, seven boats, one aircraft, 131 firearms and two containers conveying drugs. Operation Kingfish alone was also responsible for the seizure of more than nine metric tons of cocaine, four pounds of hash oil and over 5,117 pounds of compressed marijuana." 

The head of Operation Kingfish, Assistant Commissioner Glenmore Hinds, said that he was encouraged by a report. "It has confirmed what we have been saying," he said. "This commendation will only encourage us as we continue to fulfil our mandate to dismantle criminal networks."

The INCSR raised concerns about money laundering in Jamaica, which it noted, was continuing because of a lack of effective legislation. In response, Hinds said: "There indeed are some inadequacies in some aspects of our legislation. Some of the things we have been lobbying for are, however, now before parliament."

The State Department's report also named Jamaica as the largest Caribbean producer and exporter of marijuana. 

The Eastern Caribbean

The report was fairly damning about the seven nations of the Eastern Caribbean; Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. "Drug trafficking and related crimes - such as money laundering, drug use, arms trafficking, official corruption, violent crime, and intimidation have the potential to threaten the stability of the small, democratic countries of the Eastern Caribbean and, to varying degrees, have damaged civil society in some of these countries."

The report noted that most of the drugs came to the area by sea, in small "go-fast" vessels, larger fishing boats, yachts and freight carriers, although some South American traffickers deliver drug loads either on the beach or offload their cargo to smaller vessels at sea. 

"Some of the Eastern Caribbean DTOs (drug trafficking organisations) have also established contacts amongst themselves to facilitate drug distribution in the region. Local traffickers often pay for services with drugs and/or weapons to limit costs and to increase demand and markets. According to US law enforcement officials, the infrastructure built by DTOs operating in the region and other vulnerabilities that exist in the region make it ripe for exploitation by terrorist organizations," the INCSR stated. 

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago fared slightly better, eliciting praise from the State Department report for continuing to co-operate with the US on counter-narcotics issues and allocating "significant resources to the fight against illegal drugs". Nevertheless, the report still pointed out that the country was a major transit point for drugs from South America to Europe and the US. The INCSR noted that Trinidad and Tobago has an advanced petrochemical sector, which requires the import and export of chemicals that can be diverted for the manufacturing of cocaine hydrochloride. Precursor chemicals originating from Trinidad and Tobago have been found in illegal drug labs in Colombia. 

No mention of the RSS

Interestingly, the report made absolutely no mention of the Regional Security System (RSS), a task force set up to deal collectively with regional threats. In December 2005, an Antiguan minister demanded the RSS should be promoting its work more to show it was working hard in the fight against drugs. The comment followed a statement by a US Drug Enforcement Agency official who questioned whether governments in the Caribbean would actually "do something" about drug trafficking in the region.

The mission statement of the RSS is: "To ensure the stability and well-being of Member States through mutual co-operation, in order to maximise regional security in preserving the social and economic development of our people." Although effectively set up in an attempt to legitimise the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, since the end of the Cold War its role has been uncertain, although many of its members have been calling for it to take a greater role in tackling drug trafficking in the region. Whatever work it may have done, it failed to merit even a mention in the INCSR.