Lovelette Brooks, Special Projects Editor
REESE
A COMBINATION OF joint initiatives by Jamaica and Britain have drastically reduced the number of Jamaican 'drug mules' incarcerated in the United Kingdom by 70 per cent.
The declining trend has been bolstered by an aggressive public awareness campaign mounted by the U.K.-based welfare organisation, Hibiscus, aimed at discouraging Jamaican women from making the 'drug run'.
So effective have been the tough-on-crime measures that no female mules have been convicted since the start of the year, according to Hibiscus spokesperson Sonya Ellis, and the drug traders have shifted to other ports in the region.
TRANSPORTING DRUGS
Operation Airbridge, part of the efforts of both governments to stem the flow of drugs across their borders, is being credited for cauterising the once prolific practice of transporting drugs.
Launched in June 2002, following a diplomatic row when 20 drug mules were found on one aeroplane from Jamaica destined for the U.K., Operation Airbridge uses ion scanners to detect persons who are carrying illegal drugs, or have recently used them. Ion scan machines have been in use in the island's two airports.
"Over the past three years, we have seen a significant drop in the number of women entering our penal institution on drug charges," Commissioner of Corrections Major Richard Reese said. "Our drug interdiction measures are working, and it is (almost) impossible for a swallower to pass through our ports undetected."
Senior Superintendent Carlton Wilson, in charge of the Narcotics Division, agrees. "Our ion scan machines ... and frost machines have proven very effective in deterring drug mules," he told The Gleaner.
The frost machine is equipped with remote-sensored gloves to detect and remove the drugs from body cavities.
Prior to the launch of Operation Airbridge, the number of cocaine swallowers detected in the U.K. had risen rapidly to 730. With the deterrent effect produced by the operation, this number fell dramatically to 185 in the operation's first year up to June 2003. Up to June 2004, the number had been reduced further to only 41, a total reduction of more than 90 per cent since the operation began.
