KINGFISH PUTS BIG DENT IN DRUG TRADE

Cocaine, Three Go-Fast Boats Seized - 7 Colombians among 9 Men Arrested

Just over two weeks after it was launched with American and British
endorsement, Operation Kingfish, the Jamaican Government's latest
counter-narcotics and gang-busting task force, put a big dent in the
illegal drug trade with the seizure of almost Ja 4 billion dollars worth of
cocaine headed for the US through Jamaica.

Nine men, seven of them Colombians, are now in US custody in connection
with the seizure made in the north western Caribbean Sea between Sunday and
Wednesday, and three go-fast boats have been confiscated. The police, up to
last night, were unable to say where the other two men were from.

Last night, Assistant Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds, who heads
Operation Kingfish, told the Observer that the three boats were intercepted
separately by American law enforcement agents, assisted from land by their
Jamaican and British colleagues.

The total weight of the cocaine seized was 6.8 metric tonnes, the
Constabulary Communication Network said in one of its daily news releases.

"We have reasons to believe it (the cocaine) was destined for Jamaica," ACP
Hinds told the Observer. "It's another success," he added. "If we are able
to cut off the supply line, it dries up the cash that is at the disposal of
the criminal network."

Over the past eight years, Jamaica 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.
Most of the rest is headed for Britain.

Over the past two years, though, Jamaica's efforts at stopping drug running
through the island have reaped some success, resulting in the American and
British authorities increasing technical and financial support to local law
enforcement agencies.

The successes, however, have driven up the street price of narcotics, and
local police now say that a kilogram of cocaine is being sold in Jamaica
for as much as US10,000 dollars.

Late month, 1.7 metric tonnes of cocaine were seized from a go-fast boat
intercepted in the Caribbean Sea by the HMS Richmond under Operation Kingfish.

Since Operation Kingfish's October 19 launch, more than two dozen boats,
which the police suspect are being used in drug smuggling, have been seized.

The task force, which has been mandated to target organised crime gangs and
their bosses, has also been destroying several acres of ganja cultivation
in rural Jamaica. Police say that the drug is being exported to Haiti in
exchange for guns.