By Andrew Green, Staff ReporterSUCCESS IN curtailing the cocaine trade has allowed the police to redeploy some intelligence resources into countering gang warfare, according to Minister of National Security, Peter Phillips.
An operation is now under way, "which would allow for us to identify, apprehend and cause to cease their operations... major (individuals) at the heart of gang warfare," Mr. Phillips said. He was speaking at an economic forum sponsored by Pan Caribbean Financial Services at the Terra Nova Hotel in St. Andrew recently.
He disclosed that the thrust against gangs involved a combination of the intelligence capabilities of the Jamaica Defence Force and the Jamaica Constabulary Force along with international partners.
NEW REVENUE SOURCES
Security officials, he said, believe the island's main gangs are now trying to find new revenue sources as income from the cocaine smuggling has been cut.
"We have been able to dent this trade," Mr. Phillips said. "Over the past three months or so what we have seen is that the street price of cocaine has more than doubled.
"Even more importantly, we have seen a relative cessation of major movements of cocaine between Colombia and Jamaica over that period," he added.
Significant arrests have been made in Jamaica as part of an international effort to crush the trade, the National Security Minister reported. These arrests have been tied to others in Colombia, Panama and the United States.
But, the reduction in the cocaine trade has contributed to an intensification of inter-gang conflicts, Phillips noted. The gangs are battling, "even more intensively over what remains of the trade and as they enter into other areas of criminal activity to an even greater degree."
GANG-ORGANISED ROBBERIES
There has been an increase in gang-organised robberies and the introduction of criminal 'rackets' in particular areas of the island, he said, adding that the main gangs usually have connections with Jamaican communities overseas, thus facilitating a flow of resources. Closer collaboration with international partners will help to stem this flow, Phillips said.
