NARCOTICS NUISANCE

Over 99 Per Cent of Marijuana Coming From St. Vincent Is Used
Locally, As Barbados Is a Receiving Point for That Drug.

That confirmation has come from Sergeant Duane Griffith, who also
revealed that about ten or 15 per cent of cocaine that makes its way
on to these shores remains here, while the other 85 or 90 per cent
goes to Western Europe and North America.

Sergeant Griffith made these revelations while addressing
participants at the Ninth Assembly of CARIYOUTH Barbados, under the
theme Caribbean Youth Empower Yourself, at the Commission of Pan
African Affairs yesterday. The theme focused mainly on violence among
young people, promiscuity and the importance of abstinence.

Speaking on the topic Crime and Narcotics Trade in the Caribbean,
Griffith identified air and sea cargo, go-fast, courier and the mail
as some methods of drug trafficking in the region. In addition, he
named Jamaica and St. Vincent as the main marijuana producing
countries of the Caribbean.

While almost every country in the Caribbean is a transshipment point
for cocaine, Griffith stated that in some cases  like in Haiti 
drugs are being exchanged for firearms as payment or part payment.
With our easy and accessible coastlines and borders, he noted that
the region is very vulnerable when it comes to dealing with drug
traffickers and criminal organisations.

Increasingly, he added, We have been seeing the use of legitimate
cargo ships in the Caribbean being targeted by drug traffickers.
Drugs are smuggled from one island to another by cargo ships, in many
cases, without the knowledge of the ships crew, captain or the ships owners.

On the other hand, Griffith noted that some cargo vessels actively
participate in trafficking drugs. In recent years, we have seized
drugs from some cargo vessels and a number of their crew members were
charged and convicted. In some cases, ships are legitimate, and other
occasions, the ships are involved, he stated.

Referring to drugs as a dirty business, Griffith said that drug
traffickers go to any length to get by the law enforcement
authorities with their contraband. The dangerous method that
couriers use is ingesting the drugs. Small packets of cocaine are
swallowed. Depending on where the drugs are destined for, you may
either use locals or persons coming from Europe.

A courier sits and swallows about 70 to 120 packets of the cocaine,
sometimes it takes the whole day to swallow the inch- and-a-half
concealed drug. The danger is, if one of the packets bursts or is
ruptured, it results in serious injuries or death to that person, he added.

The types of drugs that are used for trafficking are marijuana,
cocaine, and ecstacy or MDMA, a synthetic drug which made its way
into the Caribbean within the last six or seven years.