By Lloyd Williams,
Senior Associate Editor
FOR A seasoned and senior police office, the answer to Jamaica's scourge of guns lies in "good intelligence gathering and analysis. You have to get the intelligence - how are they coming in, who is distributing them, trace the firearms, build the evidence".
Mike Surridge, Commissioner of the Revenue Protection Department (RPD), Ministry of Finance, gives his views:
"What we are looking at is the possible importation of firearms and ammunition and of course now we have to look at drugs because unfortunately, we are becoming a transhipment centre for drugs".
According to Mr. Surridge, the RPD was trying to identify the methods of importation "of these things, whether it's through our formal systems or whether they are being brought in informally.
One of the things the RPD had been attempting to do, he said, was to identify exactly what was coming in through the formal import systems. "Unfortunately, as we tighten the net and as Customs has improved its systems, particularly in respect of computerisation, smugglers have taken action as well, so they have sophisticated their operations. And now we are getting more and more where smuggled goods are arriving in the island in containers manifested and addressed to companies which have a good history of compliance with Customs".
He said that what the RPD had done to try and speed up importations, was to allow certain companies which had a good record of importation and payment of Customs duties, "companies that we trust", to have the level of examination of their goods reduced to 5 per cent. "This obviously is a modern way to look at Customs -- you profile, you identify people you can trust, you reward the honest so that you have more time to spend dealing with the dishonest", he said.
But what was happening was that the dishonest had identified the system and were now using the names and documents of honest companies to import.
"Now if you think back to last year one striking example was that we had 48 containers come into the island, manifested as french fries; when we got the last four they were chicken. But in truth, we have no idea what was in the other 44 containers".
Also, he cited the case of the container in which the RPD last week seized a Mercedes Benz sedan, a Pajero SUV and three motorcycles. It was manifested as "appliances" then the persons who brought it in tried to change the manifest to "building material" and inside were motor vehicles.
"Now, had we not got the assistance of the trusted company in that, the container would have left the docks and nobody would have known where it is, where it went or what was in it. Now that is the danger", Mr. Surridge said.
Asking "What are we doing as a country?" he set about answering the question himself. He said that last year K.D. Knight, Minister of National Security and Justice, gave him a project to look at whether it would be feasible to use modern technology and equipment to X-ray all of the goods coming into and out of the country in our formal system.
"This is the modern approach that is being taken by countries because we have two problems. We have the problem firstly of smuggling, and then we have the problem of the associated corruption that goes with the smuggling. Because nobody can just go down to the docks and remove a container. You have to have assistance. Then you have to have assistance from people who are authorised to give assistance".
The RPD had identified in the study into the X-ray equipment that there was no way of auditing what was happening.
"When a container comes into customs it is examined by a Customs officer who signs for what is in the container. We have to accept that", Mr. Surridge said. "There is no way that later we can audit because later the container has gone...
"Now the X-ray equipment gives us a very positive advantage because what it does, it not only can identify the contents of sealed containers, it will take a hardcopy photograph of everything it X-rays. So that then you do have a method of audit. And you can compare what was Customs-paid with what the equipment says was in the container...
"So the X-ray equipment would be used firstly to remove a lot of the discretion because now, people other than the examining customs officer would know what is contained in the container.
"Secondly, it would be used to ensure that there was not the importation of drugs, guns, ammunition and what we call 'bandoolu'."
Mr. Surridge said he had travelled to the United States, Europe and China, to view the equipment and was at the stage of putting forward his proposal. "This is not something that we have to deal with lightly", Mr. Surridge said, "because this changes our very system of imports and exports. We would have the ability if we so wished in this country to be able to X-ray everything that came in and everything that went out through our formal systems. It takes about four minutes to X-ray and between 10 and 15 minutes to analyse and it's all done on a random generator so that nobody selects which analyst analyses which container."
He said it was a very modern system. It was in use in Rotterdam, in the United states of America, in England, particularly in the Channel Tunnel where there were huge security risks. He said that China had put it in also and a lot of countries were looking at it as a way of being able to audit what goes on and to be able to prevent.
He was doing a report jointly for Mr. Knight and for Dr. Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning for the government to make the decisions. Acknowledging that the equipment was expensive, Mr. Surridge said, "We are not going to waste money but it's whether or not the equipment will pay for itself, because we all know of the leakage of duties at the ports, so hopefully this equipment will stop a lot of the leakage and the money that is collected by preventing that leakage will help to pay for the equipment."
He said that if the government decided to acquire it, it would make the island the only country in the world with a security system that covered 100% of its formal systems. The airports and the seaports would be covered and everything would be X-rayed right down to hand luggage.
In his 10 years at RPD, Mr. Surridge is unable to hazard a guess as to how many containers might have slipped through without inspection. But he said that one of the things that Customs was doing was to computerise the manifest system. This would enable the RPD and Customs to trace every container and every import.
"Smugglers will adopt a system of smuggling. They will be smuggling commercial goods. The really bad people will discover that system and piggyback on it. That is our concern. So someone brings in a commercial product and what he is really doing is evading paying duty on it. However to do that they have a channel through which they put that stuff out, people they will pay to ensure that the stuff is not examined or if it is examined, that there is no duty paid. Mostly it's not examined.
"But what happens is that they get that system going and then the really bad people, the people who import the guns and drugs, identify that system is in existence and then piggyback on it for their own stuff without any risk. That is the danger.
"But let me say this: In all the containers that we have seized, we haven't found any weapons. So we are not even sure that the weapons are coming in through the formal system. But until we secure the formal system we won't be able to release the police to be able to look in more detail at the informal system."
