PHILLIPS
MINISTER OF National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips, has urged Latin American, Caribbean and Central American governments to forge a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty Regime in the fight against the drug trade.
Dr. Phillips said Monday that such a move would facilitate easier sharing of intelligence, assist joint operations and the mobilisation of response to emergencies and disasters.
The National Security Min-ister was speaking at a special meeting of Ministers of Defence of the Caribbean and Latin American region in Bogota, Colombia.
COMBINED LOBBYING EFFORTS
Dr. Phillips also called for combined lobbying efforts in getting international funding agencies to invest in security infrastructure. He said failure to come to grips with the problem of the illicit drug trade represented a threat to the social fabric of societies in the region.
He cited estimates which indicated that 100-120 metric tonnes of cocaine were at one time being trans-shipped through Jamaica annually, equivalent to 20 per cent of U.S. demand and 10 per cent of the Colombian trade. He emphasised that the trans-shipment of drugs represented a real and present danger to Jamaica, in that there was a criminal elite with enough massive resources to threaten legitimate governments.
