Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator

A boat from Haiti which has been seized by the Clarendon police. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

Narcotics detectives in collaboration with their colleagues in Clarendon are probing the whereabouts of a stash of illegal guns which they believed arrived in the island Monday, on a fishing boat from the Republic of Haiti.

It is reported that the boat, which was equipped with two 40-hph engines, was found hours after it was left abandoned in the coastal area of Milk River in Clarendon.

"The Clarendon police got the information, but by the time they rushed to the location, we learnt that a minibus came earlier and collected the weapons," Senior Superintendent Carlton Wilson told The Gleaner yesterday.

Forensic experts were called in yesterday to examine the boat at narcotics headquarters on Spanish Town Road, Kingston. They are hoping to ascertain the items that were transported in the boat from Haiti.

The narcotics police are seeking the assistance of the international policing organisation (Interpol) to identify the owner of the boat.

Easy access to coastal areas

In the meantime, head of the Clarendon Division, Superintendent Derrick 'Cowboy' Knight, is blaming the easy access to the coastal areas of the parish for the increasing crime problem in his division.

For more than four years, the guns-for-drugs trade between Jamaica and Haiti has been a major headache for the country's security forces. Last Wednesday, Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas said he aware of the lucrative trade which extend as far as Central America.

He said the Police High Command believed that any reversal of this situation required more boats to facilitate sustained inshore and offshore patrols, which are driven by intelligence and support from overseas partners.