THE United States has given a relatively positive assessment of Jamaica’s efforts to battle drug running through the island, but says the authorities need to do more – with stepped-up international co-operation – to arrest and prosecute big drug dealers and shut down their operations.

But in its latest international report on the international drug trade, the US State Department conceded that Jamaica’s efforts to fight narcotics smugglers was constrained by the island’s weak economy, although it stressed that corruption remained a significant issue and warned that Colombian drug cartels may have established “command and control” centres here to direct their operations.

However, the Americans hailed the police’s Narcotics Division, headed by Senior Superintendent Carl Williams, as “a competent and respected unit”.

“The GOJ (Government of Jamaica) has taken steps to protect itself against drug trafficking and other organised crime, but needs to intensify and focus its law enforcement efforts and enhance international co-operation in order to disrupt the trafficking of large amounts of cocaine in Jamaica and its territorial waters,” said the report, released on Saturday. “Needed action include arrest and prosecuting significant drug traffickers operating in Jamaica, dismantling drug-trafficking organisations and increasing drug seizures and eradication.”

The State Department promised continued US material and technical help in Jamaica’s fight against narcotics traders.

These reports are issued by the United States annually and countries deemed not to be aggressive in the anti-narcotics campaign risk an American blacklist and a loss of economic support.

Jamaica is critical to America’s strategy to limit the amount of drugs entering the United States, for the island is not only the Caribbean’s largest producer and exporter of marijuana, but has emerged as a major transshipment point for cocaine going from Colombia to North America and Europe.

It is estimated that up to 100 tonnes of cocaine a year is shipped through the island, with about 70 per cent of this destined for the United States, with most of the rest headed for Britain.

“Smugglers are increasingly using the areas surrounding the Pedro Cays (fishing outposts about 50 miles off Jamaica’s south coast) as a staging/resupply point for go-fast vessels travelling from Colombia to Mexico,” said the report. “Colombian drug cartels are believed to have established command and control centres in Jamaica over the past several years to direct their illicit operations. The “Colombianisation” of the Jamaican drug trade is of great concern to the GOJ.”

Senior police and Government officials were unavailable for comment last night, but even as they recognised the efforts of the Jamaican Government to tackle the problems and highlighted the “severe resource constraints” that hampered “aggressive actions against narcotics trafficking networks”, the Americans warned of problems posed by corruption.

“Corruption continues to undermine law enforcement and judicial efforts against drug-related crime in Jamaica and is a major barrier to more effective counter-narcotics actions,” the State Department said.

It noted, however, Parliament’s final approval late last year of the Corruption Prevention Act – which is to be launched this month – and made the point that the Government did not encourage or facilitate the production or distribution of narcotics and other controlled substances.

The report pointed that it was Government policy to investigate “credible reports of public corruption” and to prosecute individuals linked by “reliable evidence” to drug-related activity and said that no senior administration official had been prosecuted for either drug trading or money laundering.

“There are a number of ongoing investigations into alleged drug-related corruption involving police personnel, and in 2002 a number of JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) and JDF (Jamaica Defence Force) personnel were arrested on drug-related charges, including a district constable and a member of the narcotics branch,” the report said.

On the wider front, the report said: “The GOJ did not arrest any significant drug traffickers in 2002, but took steps to strengthen its capability to identify, apprehend and prosecute drug traffickers and dismantle drug-trafficking organisations.”

It listed among these efforts the new wiretap law, which will make information from court-approved wiretaps admissible in trials, the assignment of 20 specially vetted police to work with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the signing of bilateral anti-narcotics agreements by Jamaica with other countries and the strengthening of the police’s Narcotics Division.

For instance, in 2001 that division had 16 members and that is now up to 165.

“The Narcotics Division is undergoing a multi-year restructuring programme, which will increase its staffing to 250 officers over the medium term,” the report said.

The Americans also hailed the Government’s initiative announced last year to tackle crime, the declared emphasis against drug gangs, the efforts to enhance security at the sea and airports although there were other things to be done, including:

. a technical improvement of the wiretap law;

. the passage of a civil assets forfeiture law;

. revised legislation to bring psychotropic substances under the drug trafficking laws; and

. full implementation of the Corruption (Prevention) Act.