Guns for Drugs Revelations

November 29, 2018 Crime , North America , OPINION/NEWS , OTHER

BBC photo

By

Ricardo Swire

The Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) “Operation Kingfish” is a special law enforcement offensive, conducted by a high-level JCF Unit established to confront drug trafficking, gang violence and escalated criminal activity across the island. A recent evaluation confirmed national security breaches, caused by the Drugs for Guns trade between Jamaica and Haiti.

Records detailed Operation Kingfish offensives that seized 1,598 pounds of compressed marijuana, worth US$570,000, during simultaneous interdictions in Kingston and Portland districts. In another scenario JCF Narcotics Division detectives intercepted four illegal pistols along Portland’s Manchioneal Beach, 630 pounds of marijuana waiting at the same location for maritime transportation to Haiti and the Bahamas.

An Operation Kingfish raid at a Kingston shipping terminal stopped one forty foot container carrying compressed marijuana hidden in the floor space. In one assignment a Jamaica Defense Force (JDF) Air Wing helicopter assisted the arrests of three Haitians, one Honduran and seven local traffickers in Hampton Court, St Thomas. Four illegal Haitian guns were confiscated.

A Small Arms Survey estimated a minimum 170,000 illegal pistols/revolvers circulate in Haiti. Several gun traffickers rely on specialists to obliterate serial numbers on smuggled weapons to make tracing difficult. One Operation Kingfish campaign intercepted forty packages of compressed marijuana on Leath Beach in St Thomas. Two traffickers, who attempted to depart for Haiti by go-fast boat, were detained.

In 2016, as part of the island’s national security countermeasures against maritime vulnerability, Jamaica received seventeen new patrol vessels from America. The JCF’s Marine Division took possession of ten twenty-seven foot patrol boats. JDF Coast Guard officers commissioned seven similar vessels, to help safeguard 638 miles of coastline. The US Ambassador said “the boats will be able to patrol the Jamaican coasts, protect Jamaican coastal waters, protect fishermen, prevent drug smuggling, prevent gun smuggling and trafficking in persons.”