MARK WIGNALL

SINCE the tragic September 11 attack on the WTC complex in New York not only have the economy of the US and those countries that rely on it as a vital trade outlet been affected, but in the illicit movement of drugs into the great market that the USA is, serious pile-ups are now occurring.

As Jamaica has established itself as one of the main trans-shipment points in the movement of cocaine from South America to the United States, at any one time there are shipments-in-waiting someplace in Jamaica ready to take off by sea or air to one of the many islands in the Bahamas or another of the outlying islands for ultimate destination, USA.

With the tightening of security worldwide and especially at the points of entry into the USA, the local handlers in Jamaica and the South American suppliers are in a panic as they attempt to figure out how to make money on goods that cannot move to their natural market.

The laws of economics apply here too. Costs are skyrocketing. Security costs both for local carriage of the goods and for gunmen; "soldiers", with high-powered weapons to do guard duty are up.

The longer a stash of cocaine remains in its hiding place, the more prone to discovery it becomes. Because of this some stocks have to be moving from one place to another and these costs, for local police to guarantee safe road transport and to buy their silence have also increased.

When we bear in mind that although some attempts have been made to "cartelise" those individuals and groups handling all the cocaine passing over the island, this has not been entirely successful. Where there is no honour among thieves, one group will try to steal from the other. Again, because of this, the longer the cocaine remains in local custody, the more "soldiers" will be needed, the more they will need guns of higher calibre and the more intense will be the tension, gunplay and killings.

Many theories abound as to the real causes of the crime wave, especially drive-by shootings. One put forward by Garnett Roper (writing in the Sunday Herald) has found favour with one of my usually reliable sources. According to this theory, the drive-bys are a way of pulling police heat and build-up to one area while unimpeded drug movements are made in other areas.

The theory as put forward by Roper speaks to a certain constancy in the plan while the one put forward by my police friend deals with one-off instances, in other words, one drive-by shooting per deceptive move.

Many months ago super spy, Roderick "Jimmy" McGregor, had earmarked at least three well-known local names in bits of documentation he had pieced together. These three individuals, the documentation implied, were main suspects in the handling of South American cocaine in Jamaica, gun imports and organised crime. All three individuals were heads of heavily armed gangs. Since Jimmy's fall from grace (in the eyes of the local security bosses) one of the names has died violently and possibly as a result, shootings have increased considerably.

One fact that is casually side-stepped by all politicians is the involvement of political enforcers, community leaders, area leaders in the illicit drug trade. Power begets power and seeks out more power. Where men have guns, "soldiers", safe political turf to operate in and a political pseudo boss to claim alliance with, it is natural that that power would seek out the additional money clout that only cocaine can give. The PNP and the JLP know this.

One of the main considerations among the Jamaican cocaine handlers at present is the attempt to sell on the local streets whatever amounts that can be moved. Now, the big problem with this is should the local market for cocaine be increased tenfold, it still could not absorb even a dent of the illicit drug now in storage.

To compound this problem every other icymint and hot Guinness seller on the roads are involved in the sale of crack-cocaine. A low level dealer explained to me two weeks ago; "Everybody a sell coke now and it naw move. It better mi go back inna herbs."

A kilo of coke on the streets of Kingston will fetch a first price of $280,000. By the time it is "stepped on", that is cut and "cooked" and sold on the streets in "eight balls", that is 1/8 ounce pieces, the buyer will have collected $1 million an over $700,000 profit on two pounds of cocaine. And under normal circumstances the traffic is heavy owing to the highly addictive nature of crack/cocaine.

According to a friend of mine who was "stung" years ago by the DEA, an attractive young woman will come to you at 7:00 am for a ball of crack-cocaine. She pays for it and leaves. At 10:00 am she comes back again and pays for another hit. At midday she returns with a VCR, probably stolen but possibly her own, seeking a trade for another hit.

AT 3:00 pm she returns and her beauty is on the line. Her hair is dishevelled, her eyes have become strange little globes dancing crazily in her head. She smells. But she wants another hit and she is broke. She offers a very obvious sexual favour. Once the pernicious quality of coke sets in she is finished with life as she once knew it, and not even her mother would recognise her or want her back then.

At the international level, most of the cocaine coming into the island is originating from Colombia and Bolivia. Other amounts come in from Ecuador and Peru. Getting it into Jamaica by sea is child's play, I am told, as of the five Coast Guard vessels operating in our waters, at any one time, only one is operative. The parish marine divisions can be easily infiltrated.

At present the Bahamas is "hot" with the US coast guards taking out everything coming that way. "Slingshot" flights, that is twin-engined planes with no flight plans are still attempting to go from South America directly to the West coast of Florida, skimming the waves to avoid radar, then slowly blending into the domestic air traffic of western Florida.

Recognising that the coke stocks in Jamaica are backed up, new shipments are arriving but slowly. Some of the "cigarette" speed boats are heading the long way straight towards the Yucatan peninsula then taking a south-easterly bearing eventually, slowly easing into the Florida coastline. The logic of that is, it is less likely that the US Coast Guard will intercept craft travelling in a southerly direction than those heading in the opposite direction.

On Friday June 29, 2001 the New York Times carried a story headlined, "Colombian Rebels Release 242 Prisoners of War". In the story, it was stated that 242 soldiers and police officers held as prisoners of war, many for more than three years in jungle camps, were released.

It is no secret that guerrilla groups in Colombia are funded by some of the drug cartels. This makes the obvious link between the gun and the illicit movement of drugs from the region. It may just explain the huge stocks of high-powered weaponry now in Jamaica.

In Jamaica, Portland and especially the Ken Jones airstrip has been the preferred point of "take-off" of drugs, with many real life shootouts and intriguing moments taking place there at night and in daylight hours. According to my source, transport of any "reasonably sized" load of transshipment coke is always carried out with the assistance of rogue cops, some with connections far up on the totem pole.

HE tells me of a situation which took place a few years ago. He and another individual with race-horse connections had driven to a rural community one late evening. In the back seat of his BMW and the other vehicle was a total of half tonne of Colombian coke. The vehicles were parked in the bushes and they were offloading the stash, waiting on the arrival of a Navajo Chieftan twin-engined plane.

As the plane arrived on the roadway both men were hurriedly throwing the packages through the open door of the slowly moving aircraft. A police car arrived and policemen came out with guns drawn just as the stash was fully loaded and the craft was airbound.

The man with race-horse connections ignored the policemen as he haughtily walked back to his own car. He opened the trunk and drew aside an old piece of newspaper. Underneath was hundreds of thousands of Jamaican dollars, carried for certain "contingencies" such as the one he was faced with.

He dipped his hands in the cash and threw towards the policemen loose bundles of $500 bills, maybe about $100,000 worth as he said, "You guys must stay outa big man business." The policemen gazed at each other but their guns were still drawn.

He dipped in the cash again and threw another bundle towards them. "Wait, onnu hard a hearing. A sey leave big man b**** c**** business alone!"

My friend tells me that as they both drove off, a glimpse in his rear-view mirror showed the cops busy gathering up the many loose "nannies" from the ground. A few days later he was in Miami collecting his share of the transaction, some of which he passed to a man of Chinese extraction.

On arrival in Jamaica, he would collect Jamaican dollars from the man's connection in Jamaica, an uptown supermarket.

The main problem with the pile-up of cocaine in Jamaica is its movement from one place to the other. Too many high calibre guns are involved.

My source tells me that communities in Portmore are being increasingly used as an "area" of storage. And, coincidentally, Portmore is being seen as an ideal market for local consumption.

But the number one dilemma is the most worrying one. With the focus of the security forces now on narco-terrorism and its damaging effects on the society, almost all of the movements of South American cocaine moving in and through the island are covertly sanctioned and protected by some men coming out of those very ranks.

Who will guard the guardians?

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