Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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Turnquest: Strategies in place to deal with Haitian drug trafficking By KRYSTEL ROLLE ~ Guardian Staff Reporter ~ krystel@nasguard.com:
While International experts have expressed fear over a possible rise in drug trafficking following Haiti's earthquake, Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest said the government has implemented strategies to deal with any such threat that might arise.
"Well we don't know that there's going to be an increase," said Turnquest. "What we do know is we have constant surveillance. We have intelligence gathering that we use. We have been successful in terms of what we use for our internal intelligence and also what we've used through our collaboration with the United States of America through OPBAT (Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos, a joint counter-narcotics program)."
According to international media reports, the U.S. Justice Department said the number of drug planes landing in Haiti has been on the rise in recent years and could get worse in the earthquake's wake.
Additionally, Captain Peter Brown, who commands U.S. Coast Guard efforts in the Caribbean, said the smugglers are back on the job following a short break after the earthquake, which hit the impoverished nation last month,. Speaking recently to U.S. publication USA Today, Brown said that the 5,000 convicts who escaped from the National Penitentiary in Haiti threaten to increase the drug activity on that island. Minister Turnquest said The Bahamas has seen a little bit of activity lately, but nothing to cause concern. "We haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. We continue to make good apprehensions based on intelligence. As you know through your intelligence we caught a boat with drugs about a week ago with five Haitians on board. So maybe they're referring to that," he said referring to the concerns expressed by U.S. officials about an increase in drug trafficking out of Haiti. Last week those five Haitians were charged in a local magistrate's court after Bahamian and U.S. officials seized 404 pounds of cocaine and 51 pounds of marijuana with a combined wholesale street value of $3 million. The boat's captain Alteme Beauplant, 40, and his four crew members Adessant Laguerre, 50, Michelin Adelphin, Audigene Jean Jules, 50, and Termilien Haly, 44, initially entered guilty pleas to charges of having marijuana and cocaine with intent to supply, importation of the drugs and conspiring to commit the crimes when they appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell last week. However, Magistrate Bethell changed those pleas to not guilty when each of the defendants said they did not know that the drugs were hidden inside the 40-foot freighter's fuel tank. Their trial is set to begin in May. Turnquest said The Bahamas has excellent surveillance. He noted that The Bahamas works very closely with the Americans through OPBAT and the U.S. Coast Guard. "And where we have intelligence we will act upon (it). And I won't say what it is because if I tell you, then the drug dealers will know," he added. Asked whether the Haitian drug problem is a major issue for Bahamian officials, Turnquest said it is not. "I don't know that it's any different from any drug cartels that we've seen in the past. Where we have information (about any) drugs transiting through The Bahamas or making its way to The Bahamas, then we have a program in place to deal with it," he said. According to a 2009 report by the U.S. State Department, there are more than 1,100 miles of mostly unpatrolled coastline and at least 29 clandestine airstrips in Haiti. The report notes that drug planes and speedboats deliver shipments of cocaine from Venezuela and Colombia. The drugs are then reportedly taken to Port-au-Prince or the north coast, where freighters transport them to Europe or through The Bahamas and on to Florida.
Wednesday February 10, 2010 |
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