By
Ricardo Swire
The Eastern Caribbean (EC) islands Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines host abundant trans-shipment points for illicit drugs and guns. Drug consignments arrive primarily from Colombia and Venezuela destined for North America, Europe and domestic Caribbean customers. The Anti-Money Laundering & Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act of 2009, plus the Interception of Communications Bill & Criminal Procedure Bill, were introduced to improve CARICOM law enforcers’ investigative capabilities.
Such legislations also help domestic Prosecutors convict drug traffickers. On Friday May 4, 2018 a thirty-four year old Grenadian, the Progressive Party (TPP) political candidate for St Georges North-East, with two co-conspirators tested the teeth of CARICOM’s Interception of Communications Bill and the Criminal Procedure Bill. Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) Drug Squad officers intercepted the three men at Point Salines International Airport in St Georges. The Politian, with his forty-four year old and twenty-six year old local male accomplices, collected compressed marijuana, camouflaged inside packaged cat food. The drug consignment was among items exported from America to Grenada in a shipping barrel.
On Saturday May 5, 2018 RGPF Drug Squad detectives stopped a seventy year old male Guyanese traveller transiting the Maurice Bishop International Airport. The Air Canada passenger en route to Toronto used his motorized wheelchair as a Trojan Horse to hide high-value cocaine packets under the seat cushion. Most marijuana, shipped through the Eastern Caribbean, is either produced or warehoused north of Grenada in St Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG). Grenada’s most significant combative piece of legislation is the 1992 Drug Abuse (Prevention & Control) Act.
Other valuable pieces include the Proceeds of a Crime Act of 2012, Financial Intelligence Unit Act of 2012 and the Terrorism Act of 2012. Grenada is also a party to several Organization of American States (OAS) and United Nations (UN) treaties that combat drugs, terrorism and crime. Regional trafficking trends show a significant increase of fishing boat traffic between Grenada and SVG. Intelligence data registered one interdiction by RGPF Drug Squad detectives, supported by Coast Guard (CG) and Special Service Unit (SSU) officers that captured a 200 Horse Power (HP) speed boat. The vessel transported four hundred pounds of marijuana, while navigating coastal waters off Perseverance, St Georges.
On the neighboring SVG constellation, over a twelve month period, marijuana seizures on Petite Dominique alone exceeded one hundred and fifty pounds. Local law enforcement held one hundred and ninety-four pounds on Sandy Island. One hundred and ninety-nine pounds of marijuana were confiscated on Marquis Island. The tropical EC popularity was noticeably dramatized by one transnational criminal network that revolved around Grenada. A EUROPOL managed enforcement operation tracked three traffickers, aboard a targeted boat, from Spanish Island Tenerife to Grenada.
The Eastern Caribbean island became the trio’s launch area for trips to Venezuela, where logistics and supply prices were negotiated. Colombian cocaine shipments via Venezuela travelled from Grenada along the maritime “Iberian Peninsula” route to Europe, using Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta and Spanish Island Tenerife as warehouses. Previously international collaboration assisted RGPF Drug Squad enforcers to intercept two British traffickers transiting Point Salines International Airport. The holidaymakers carried three pounds of cocaine creatively hidden in their suitcases.
Ricardo Swire
Ricardo Swire is the Principal Consultant at R-L-H Security Consultants & Business Support Services and writes on a number of important issues.
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