Earl Moxam, Gleaner Writer
Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin.- RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
I WAS NEVER one to enjoy helicopter rides and it was not anticipated that this one would be any different. But, the motto for all self-respecting reporters is that you go where the story takes you. Right?
But then the next words from the police official accompanying us sent a chill up my spine.
"There's a slight chance we might be shot at while we are up there," he drawled casually.
Which should not have come as a surprise. We were, after all, on the fringes of one of Colombia's main cocaine-producing areas.
The helicopter was to take us over the coca fields high up in the mountains of the Santa Marta national parks, and such visits are not among the most anticipated by the growers.
So, with a gulp and a prayer, I buckled my seat belt and, along with several other reporters from throughout the Americas, took off for our destination.
For a while it seemed the ascent would never end. Then, as we approached the peaks, the helicopter battling the swirling winds, our pilot and co-pilot pointed out the telltale foliage of the coca trees, inter-cropped with plantains, coffee trees and other legitimate crops.
This information will be passed on later to their colleagues conducting eradication exercises. Here and there small shacks could be seen and, eventually, two men peering up at the unwelcome visitors.
Happily, however, there was no hint of a hostile response, even when the chopper dipped uncomfortably low for a closer look.
TRANS-SHIPMENT ROUTES
Back on the ground we can breathe easy again. But there is much to ponder.
Earlier in the day, at Barranquilla, there was a detailed briefing by Colombian police and military officials, along with their American advisers.
On a power-point presentation, four drug trans-shipment routes from Colombia to the United States and Europe were demarcated, one of them running right through Jamaica.
According to statistics produced by the U.S. embassy in Colombia, about 90 per cent of the cocaine in the U.S. and 50 per cent of the heroin comes from that South American country.
Colombia, the report states, produces more than 700 metric tons of cocaine a year, 50 per cent of it ending up in the U.S.
The American response to the unwelcome import is Plan Colombia, a multibillion-dollar programme of military and civilian assistance for the Colombian government in taking the fight to the drug lords and the paramilitary insurgency.
Counter-drug operations in 2004 saw 485 metric tons of cocaine being seized or eradicated and potential production fell to 430 metric tons. Heroin production fell from 7.8 metric tons in 2003 to 3.8 metric tons in 2004.
The Americans also claim unprecedented success in the arrest and prosecution of Colombian narco-traffickers and terrorists who breach U.S. law, under their cooperation agreement with the government, with extraditions under President Álvaro Uribe in office since 2002, at 214.
Relations between Washington and Bogota have improved, with Uribe being regarded as a more trustworthy ally than his predecessor.
The U.S. Marshalls Service has trained more than 700 people, in two years, to work as armed escorts for prosecutors, judges and other officials engaged in bringing down the narco-traffickers and terrorists.
Security personnel have also been trained to protect witnesses and the courts that might be targeted by the criminals.
EFFECTIVE SECURITY SYSTEM
"It is important for the criminals to know that there is an effective security system that will protect the justice system and it is also crucial that there are strong laws in place to reinforce the message that if you kill a prosecutor or a judge we are coming after you and you are going to get a big sentence," one embassy official emphasised.
To hasten and make the prosecution process more effective, the Americans are guiding the Colombians in the transition of their court system from the traditional inquisitorial or civil justice model practised in Continental Europe to the accusatory system drawn from the common law tradition of the United Kingdom, U.S. and the Commonwealth.
At the U.S. military's Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), based in Florida, narco-terrorism and illicit trafficking, and the allied threats of forgery, money laundering and kidnapping are major preoccupations.
Colombia, according to a SOUTHCOM spokesman, is an important partner in this operating theatre, and the recipient of much of the military assistance that is provided. These include increased airlift capacity, the operation of a Joint Operations Intelligence Centre, and training in various military disciplines.
Meanwhile, the battle goes on. At a small airport in Tumaco elaborate preparations are under way for an aerial eradication mission.
ERADICATION EFFORTS
Chemicals are premixed and loaded on to planes, specially designed to carry up to 600 gallons on each spraying mission. The planes, once they are loaded up, depart in formation, four at a time, escorted by armed helicopters to provide protection from possible gunfire from on the ground.
Several such missions are carried out each day, once conditions are right and paramilitary action is not too hot in the area targeted. The noise is at an ear-splitting level, as the planes quickly land and take off.
"How do you protect the legitimate crops, while spraying deadly chemicals from the air?" I enquired.
"This chemical is deadly to coca, but it will not kill large trees, only causing leaf drop. That's why we do not spray with more than five knots of winds," our American guide responds.
"Are you allowed to use the same chemical in the U.S. that you spray here in Colombia?" I enquired further.
"I know it is used in the U.S. having been tested by the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and in fact, for it to be used here it had to be licensed in the U.S.," he insisted.
Furthermore, he states that the USDA conducts regular soil and water testing in Colombia, applying the same standards in the South American country as are applied back in the U.S.
MOCK EXERCISE
Despite such expensive and elaborate eradication efforts, however, the drug smugglers persist, driven by the promise of the rewards that are reaped when even a fraction of the total amount of cocaine and heroin produced gets to market.
A large portion of the drugs are smuggled by sea from off the northern coastline of Colombia through the Caribbean. It is not surprising, therefore, that on this particular day, a mock interdiction exercise is being staged from
this area.
The lookout point is on a cliff high above a bay bearing the intriguing name, Siete Olas, or Seven Waves. The shoreline is quite reminiscent of Jamaica's south coast rugged, with the beach not quite the powdery white sand variety seen on the north coast, yet fascinating in its own way, vibrant waves crashing against rocks jutting out at the foot of the cliff. Off to the left, an outcropping of land, akin to the Great Pedro Bluff in St. Elizabeth, cradles the bay.
For a while it is eerily quiet, except for the sound of the waves at the foot of the cliff. But soon there is a bit of action beginning to take place on the beach. Two rubber dinghies are being loaded with huge packages by men emerging out of the scrubland sloping down to the beach.
Then from behind the bluff two go-fast boats appear. The pilots cut the boats' engines and wait offshore for the dinghies to deliver the 'cocaine'.
This is accomplished with practised efficiency and is repeated several times, seemingly without undue fuss.
But things are about to get hot for the 'smugglers'. Unknown to them, the small plane flying high above the bay is on a reconnaissance mission and vital intelligence is being passed on.
Eventually the dinghies complete their part of the enterprise and the larger vessels, filled with their payloads, head for the open seas.
But they don't get very far. Suddenly two 'Midnight Express' interdiction boats from the Coastguard appear, one from the left; the other from the right, in a coordinated move to corral their prey into their trap.
The go-fast boats make a bid to escape, but are cut off by a navy frigate, which was lying in wait behind the bluff. From behind the hills overlooking the bay, several police helicopters appear, adding to the din.
The men in the dinghies run their craft right on to the beach and jump out, but they do not get very far as they and their onshore collaborators run straight into the arms of waiting lawmen who have by now massed along the shore.
An efficiently conducted exercise, executed largely to the satisfaction of the Colombian commanders and their American collaborators perched on the lookout point, peering down through binoculars.
But this is only a mock exercise, carried out in ideal conditions in the light of day. They know that many more difficult days, and nights, lie ahead.
But is Colombia really winning this fight?
"I'm confident that we are and we must, but it will not be easy," a Colombian police official responded to my question, in halting English. "How long will it take?" I persisted.
"Hard to say," he responded with a smile and a wary shrug of the shoulders.
He may be remembering the earlier battles against the Medellin Cartel including the killing of Medellin boss Pablo Escobar, and later, similar successes against the Cali Cartel, which have still not dealt a mortal blow to the trade.
PROGRESS IN JAMAICA
Back in Jamaica, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, Chief of Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), is confident that progress is being made along this portion of the drug trans-shipment chain, which originates in Colombia.
"What I know is that Operation Kingfish has played a major role in stemming the flow along the route through the island and its territorial waters. The intelligence shows us that the removal of some of the major players has caused a significant reduction in the amount going through Jamaica. It has not been eliminated entirely, but there is now a conscious effort to avoid Jamaica, and that's because Kingfish has made a serious dent in that big arrow that is going through Jamaica," he said of the year-old intelligence driven, police-military operational task force.
"The JDF is an integral part of Operation Kingfish in collaboration with our colleagues in the Jamaica Constabulary Force and we are pleased with number of seizures and with the fact that many of those involved are now facing the courts, some of them in extradition hearings," he said.
"Sounds familiar," I thought to myself, remembering my recent sojourn in Colombia.
