By George Ruddock, Overseas EditorLONDON:
JAMAICAN DRUG traffickers once again made the headlines in the British press yesterday when the popular London tabloid, The Mirror, carried a three-page spread headlined "Cocaine Air" which purports to highlight the growing incidents of flights from Jamaica packed with drug mules.
The article written by the paper's chief crime correspondent, Jeff Edwards, claims that on two Air Jamaica flights from Montego Bay and Kingston last week, 27 passengers were caught smuggling cocaine and cannabis, while another 42 were sent back for having false papers or being known criminals.
The investigative piece - supported by two huge photographs of passengers boarding an Air Jamaica aircraft - also went on to claim that UK police and customs officials admit that they are hard-pressed dealing with the amount of drugs being smuggled from Jamaica and the subsequent turf wars on the street which result from its importation.
The paper backed up the article with a hard-hitting editorial which called for more resources to be given to Customs, Immigration and the Police to "stamp out these evil drug flights". It ended with the call for the authorities to be given "every power to deal with the drug mules who fly in and the Mr Bigs who exploit them."
In a swift reaction to the Mirror's story, Jamaica's Deputy High Commissioner, Mr Audley Roderiques said: "While not being critical of the media, the Jamaican Government's view was that drug trafficking is an international problem and has to be dealt with through international co-operation and collaboration and we are committed to playing our part in fighting the problem.
"We have been working closely with the British Government to combat the problem, through exchange of personnel, exchange of information and intelligence and also through increased uses of available technology to stem the flow of drugs.
"In addition we have been holding discussions with our Colombian counterparts which culminated with the Minister of Security, Dr. Peter Phillips recently signing an agreement to stem the flow of drugs from Colombia to Jamaica. Our aim is to stop the drugs from coming to Jamaica and to prevent the drugs from leaving Jamaica."
But, in a more hard-hitting reaction, Mr Tony Cowles, Air Jamaica's manager for UK and Europe, said the article was both damaging and biased against the airline. He said:
"The article is a blatant attack on Jamaica as a country and its national airline. Britain's flagship carrier has identical problems like us, but there is no mention of this in the article. It is a totally biased attack against Air Jamaica and Jamaica which is indefensible."
