JAMAICA STRUGGLES TO CONTAIN BOOM IN COCAINE SMUGGLING

(Yallahs, Jamaica) -- Gordon, a villager whose family has been fishing
the waters off Jamaica's southeastern coast for generations, needed a
little extra cash. So one day last year, another fisherman introduced
him to a local cocaine smuggler.

Gordon became a bit player in a growth industry. In his 18-foot-long
boat, he makes regular pickups at prearranged spots a few miles
offshore. Occasionally he's called at the last minute to pluck
floating packets from the sea when they are jettisoned by traffickers
spotted by U.S. and Jamaican coast guard patrols.

It is dangerous work -- but very tempting in a land where times are
hard and hopes are scant.

"Fishing can't send my kids to school. Fishing can't buy a new motor
for my boat," said Gordon, who only gave his first name.

Smuggling cocaine more than doubled his income, Gordon said, sipping
rum at a seaside bar and ruminating upon the $15,000, 45-horsepower
Yamaha engine that now graces his boat.

Gordon, 38 years old, refused to give his last name for fear of the
law, but he spoke openly about his activities. While locals refused to
discuss Gordon specifically, they confirmed that cocaine smuggling by
fishermen is widespread.

"I hear it happens all up and down the coast," said Reddy Gilson, 32.
"This kind of thing is hard to keep secret. One man shows up with
money, new shoes, new clothes, more money than he had before, and
everyone knows where he got it from."

John Tom, 24, who steams fish on the roadside, said: "We all know
what's going on. You can't call the police and tell them what you
know. If they see you talking to a police officer they'll come and ...
kill you and your family."

Jean-Luc Lemahieu, manager of the Barbados-based United Nations
program to fight drugs in the Caribbean, said the phenomenon is rather
new in Jamaica.

"Up to two or three years ago, the impression was that Jamaica's major
problem was marijuana," he said.

Colombian traffickers began routing more shipments through Jamaica --
as well as Haiti -- as U.S. authorities clamped down on smuggling
through their Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico and as enforcement
improved in the Dominican Republic, Mr. Lemahieu said.

Located about halfway between Colombia and Florida and offering a
well-established network of gangs as allies, Jamaica is an attractive
alternate transit point.

"Where we used to see maybe one boatload of cocaine a week, we're now
seeing three to four boatloads of cocaine, each weighing" 800 to 1,800
pounds, said Beres Spence, head of Jamaica's police narcotics
division. "Traffickers can access every inch of our shoreline, but it
would be impossible for us to cover every inch."

Mr. Spence and foreign analysts estimate that, at most, a fifth of the
cocaine passing through Jamaica is intercepted. A record 5,500 pounds
was seized last year, more than double the amount of the year before.
While the increase might reflect better detection, it also suggests a
rise in trafficking.

Most of the cocaine is shipped on slim vessels outfitted with powerful
engines that can travel from the northern coast of Colombia to Jamaica
in about a day.

Only a small amount of the cocaine is consumed by the local market,
where a kilogram fetches $6,000. Most is smuggled to the U.S., where
the same amount sells for $20,000.

Most smugglers stockpile large shipments here with the help of people
like Gordon, then send smaller deliveries north on airline flights,
cruise ships, or smaller boats.

With unemployment running officially at 15% -- and in reality much
higher -- finding "mules" to carry the drugs is easy. Over a thousand
Jamaicans -- out of a population of 2.6 million -- were arrested for
possession of cocaine during the last two years, and most were also
charged with attempting to export the drug, police say.

The extent of Jamaica's role is summed up by one statistic: according
to U.S. Customs, 64% of those arrested for cocaine smuggling at U.S.
airports between October 1998 and September 1999 were coming from
Jamaica, though not all were Jamaican.

Mr. Spence said the Air Jamaica hub in Montego Bay, with flights going
to major cities in Europe and North American, was a "hub for drug smuggling."

American officials cite the 1998 "shiprider agreement" allowing U.S.
ships and airplanes to chase smugglers into Jamaican waters and
airspace as a sign that officials here are serious. But corruption
hampers the efforts, says the U.S. State Department.

"Corruption, especially among members of the security and law
enforcement forces," remains a serious problem, said the department's
most recent report on Jamaica, published in April 1998.

Many of Kingston's gangs were created in the 1970s to fight turf wars
on behalf of political parties. The drug business has helped make them
independent, but they retain a loose affiliation with politicians
that, Mr. Lemahieu suggested, might hamper interdiction.

"The Jamaican politicians created a Frankenstein and they have not
controlled it," Mr. Lemahieu said. "They are trying to get rid of the
ties. How far they will succeed only the future will tell."

Yet while smuggling activities are up, cocaine use has not flourished
among Jamaicans -- partly because the popular, marijuana-consuming
Rastafarians despise the drug. "It's never been accepted the way
marijuana has," said Winston Mendes-Davidson, head of Jamaica's
Medical Association