CANADA, JAMAICA DISCUSS CRIME-FIGHTING STRATEGIES

TOP cops in Canada and Jamaica are eyeing intelligence-sharing and other
measures to better fight rampaging gangs and drug traffickers in their
countries.

The joint measures emerged yesterday from talks between Jamaica's
Police Commissioner Francis Forbes and Toronto's Police Chief Julian
Fantino, who concludes a four-day visit to the island today.

In Toronto, Fantino is grappling with a spate of violence involving
gangs and drug traffickers. Some gangs are composed of second and
third-generation Jamaicans who have been blamed for a series of bloody
crimes that have shocked Canada in recent months.

"We know there is a spill-over of gang activity between Jamaica and
the city of Toronto," said Fantino, during a news conference with
Forbes yesterday at the Police Officers' Club in Kingston.

Another concern, Fantino said, is that Jamaica's location in the
Caribbean makes it a major transshipment point for South American
cocaine headed to North America, including cities such as Toronto.

The two men nevertheless expressed confidence that increased
intelligence-sharing and collaboration in training and boarder control
would help them gain the upper hand against the gangs and
traffickers.

In addition, they raised the possibility of posting liaison officers
in Canada and Jamaica to aid in joint law-enforcement efforts.

Canada's legislators and political leaders would have to approve some
of the measures.

In Toronto, gangs involving young Canadians with Jamaican ancestry are
on the rise, said Fantino, which underscored the need to develop a
better understanding of why the gangs form in order to defeat them.

If authorities fail to do that, he warned, "we, too, will become a
society with more serious difficulties that we see happening here".

The vast majority of Toronto's 300,000 Jamaican immigrants and
citizens, Fantino said, are "law-abiding" and contribute positively to
the city's vibrant "multi-cultural" environment.

Forbes said Jamaican authorities had arrested five people since
January attempting to smuggle cocaine, ganja, and hashish to Canada.
In addition, he noted that Jamaican authorities had arrested
increasing numbers of drug mules last year, thanks to increased
cooperation between Jamaican police and law-enforcement authorities in
the US and Canada.