JAMAICA and the United States are to sign an updated Shiprider Agreement , stepping up their united efforts to combat drug trafficking.

Security Minister Peter Phillips and US Ambassador to Jamaica Sue Cobb, will sign a protocol to the 1997 US-Jamaica Maritime Counter Narcotics Cooperation Agreement, also known as the Shiprider Agreement, tomorrow.

The Shiprider Agreement enables US and Jamaican law enforcement teams to work together in Jamaica’s territorial waters to beat drug traffickers’ attempts to move cocaine from South America to the United States through Jamaica and its waters. The agreement also allows them to co-operate in shipboarding, shipriding, and overflight.

According to a statement from the US Embassy, Jamaican and US negotiators agreed on the enhanced provisions last summer and both governments approved the additional provisions. The protocol allows US Coast Guard law enforcement detachments operating from certain foreign government ships to board suspected ships in Jamaican waters. This provision will allow the teams from the two countries to be even more effective in fighting narcotics traffickers sending drugs through the region.

Said the statement “The protocol also speeds up the provision of technical assistance including drug detection technology between the two countries; puts a framework in place for the exercise of jurisdiction in each nation’s contiguous zone and ensures greater protection for civil aircraft, including an agreement that neither the U.S. nor Jamaica will use force against civil aircraft in flight.