One of the more interesting comments to emerge from Mini- ster Peter Phillips' crime-fighting plan was his observation that the illegal drug trade was the root cause of much of the crime in Jamaica.
The Minister gave an estimate that some 70 to 100 metric tonnes of cocaine pass through the island each year, which makes Jamaica one of the largest drug transshipment points in the region. Many observers have from time to time suggested that the country is heavily dependent on the drug trade and that its presence explains much of the affluence in the context of an economy that registered no growth for 10 years.
The first official intimation of the real scope of the problem came last July from Prime Minister Patterson. In a broadcast to the nation announcing the establishment of the West Kingston Enquiry, he spoke of "new levels of criminality" with international input threatening to overwhelm the security forces and national institutions.
Since taking office Dr. Phillips has disclosed some details of the scope of the problem. Cocaine is estimated to fetch a price of US$40,000 a kilo in the United States. At the tonnage estimated by the Minister, this would mean that the value of the traffic is close to US$3 billion. If the local people who facilitate the transshipment were to obtain a mere 1 per cent for their efforts that would translate to US$30 million or in excess of J$1.3 billion.
The transshipment trade did not develop overnight, it took some time to grow to the stage where it has infiltrated and corrupted many local institutions. As the Minister pointed out, it is responsible for much of the high-powered weaponry that is creating so much mayhem in the society.
Tighter control of the island's borders and strengthening the Money Laundering Act, two of the measures that Minister Phillip plans to use to control drug trafficking, should help. But we must always bear in mind that vast sums of money are involved which makes control that much more difficult.
The Minister has announced the establishment of a new special unit to target the major figures behind the trafficking. The task is to unmask the organisation and planning as well as the surreptitious financial dealings involved so that solid evidence can lead to conviction in court. In short, the occasional discovery of huge caches of cocaine or ganja is not good enough.
