This is the second part of the lead story in yesterday's Sunday Gleaner by Lloyd Williams, Senior Associate Editor.
BOB AINSWORTH, during his visit in April, acknowledged the cocaine problem:
"On the courier side, we know that's (Jamaica) not the source of the overwhelming supply of cocaine into the UK. But I don't think that you can do a simple evaluation that's based on kilo weight and say where your priorities ought to be, where your necessities ought to be. And I am not suggesting that the courier problem is the biggest problem. But the other issues that are associated with couriers ought to be given some weight, as well as the amount of cocaine that they bring into the UK.
"I think that that form of entry is certainly closely associated with the crack-cocaine manufacture that goes on in the UK and it's constantly controlled by some violent criminal gangs that are causing difficulties both in Kingston town and in London and in Bristol and in other cities in the UK as well."
Cocaine and guns go together like salt and pepper, night and day, love and marriage, horse and carriage - you just don't have one without the other.
OPERATION TRIDENT
Guns, such as semi-automatic pistols and even machine pistols and assault rifles, are cocaine traffickers' dispute-resolution tribunals. This is so in the USA, in Colombia, in Jamaica and in the UK where Jamaican Yardies and their black-Briton cousins are said to control the crack-cocaine trade. They use guns to sign off on their deals, to protect their consignments from theft by competitors, interception by the law, to ensure their dominance of their turf, to effect discipline, to ensure compliance, to settle disputes or to rob their rivals.
The crack-cocaine trade guarantees an enormous amount of money, with a kilo of cocaine from Colombia fetching on the streets of London perhaps close to 1,000 times what it costs to produce in the jungles of Antioqua.
Because of the escalation of the crack-cocaine trade in London, Birmingham, Bristol and other cities in the UK and the gun violence that invariably goes with it, police forces there have planned special strategies such as "Operation Trident," the effort of the London Metropolitan Police (New Scotland Yard) which targets drug-related violent crime within black communities in London.
The gun culture which tends to hold a fascination for the young Jamaican male is no doubt finding expression in the UK by the Yardies, their black-Briton kin and, of course, their posse member mentors from the United States who are well able to teach them a thing or two, having attended 'graduate schools' in crime in the USA.
Gun violence and drug crimes in Britain are by no means the sole preserve of Yardies or other blacks. Recently the BBC reported shooting wars by Turkish and Albanian criminal gangs in the UK. And please bear in mind that the irresistible pull of the big money that is to be made by organised crime from drug trafficking, will always attract violent criminals from various ethnic groups. So don't be surprised if before too long the Russian Mafia begin claiming their share of the drug pie in the UK.
So, with huge amounts of money to be made from the crack-cocaine trade, the obsession of idle young men with finding disrespect in the most casual, innocent and accidental action - and reacting to it with the gun - and their penchant for showing off and establishing among their cohorts how tough they are, have come what the British say, is an alarming increase in the incidence of gun crimes in Britain.
The British Home Office published on January 9, 2003, its latest crime figures. It reported that crime in England and Wales remained stable "and the chances of being a victim of crime are still the lowest in more than 20 years". For the 12 months to September 2002, trends since 1997 indicated that all crime was down 27 per cent, burglary was down 39 per cent and violent crime was down 26 per cent.
But it went on: "There has been a rise in the number of offences involving the gun. Firearms, excluding air weapons, were used in 9,974 recorded offences in 2001-02 - an increase of 35 per cent, compared to 2000-01. In 24 per cent of these offences the firearm was fired. Air weapons was used in 12,340 recorded crimes, a rise of 21 per cent compared to 2000-01".
Homicide statistics show that 858 deaths were initially recorded as homicide in 2001-02, an increase of 1 per cent on 2000-01. Firearms were used in 12 per cent of homicides, an increase of 32 per cent (23 cases) on 2000-01.
John Denham, Home Office Minister, acknowledged that although crime overall remained stable, he was concerned "at the significant rise in firearm offences.
To combat this rise in gun crime Home Secretary David Blunkett announced on January 7 tough new laws to tackle it.
HANDGUNS
The proposed major tightening up of gun laws include plans for a minimum five-year minimum sentence for illegal possession and use of a firearm.
Said Mr. Blunkett on January 8: "While we already have some of the toughest gun laws in the world there has been an unacceptable increase in the flagrant use of guns in crime across the country. The Government is determined to tackle this head on and is introducing new legislation that reflects the seriousness of the offence.
"We will not tolerate an escalation of the number of guns on our streets. Evidence from the Street Crime Initiative has shown that the problem of possession of handguns lies predominantly with young people who carry weapons for self-protection or as a means of gaining respect or revenge, often related to dealing in or the use of drugs."
Britain does, indeed, have tough gun laws. A ban on ownership of handguns above .22 calibre was imposed in the UK in 1997, the year after Thomas Hamilton, a firearms buff, shot dead 16 school children, their teacher and himself in Dunblane, Perthshire, Scotland. Indeed, it is reported that the gun law in the UK is so strict that the British Olympic shooting competitors go overseas to practise because their weapons are deemed illegal in the United Kingdom.
But as happens everytime, everywhere, harsh law and tough restrictions tend to affect the law-abiding and not the lawless. That mere enactment of laws will not persuade outlaws to hand in their guns. It is going to need, first, certain detection, and then quick trial and punishment. Jamaica has had a Gun Court Act since 1974 but it has had very little deterrent effect on gunmen who know that the chances of their getting caught and being brought to book are next to zero.
On Friday, January 10, Mr. Blunkett had a roundtable meeting -- some called it a "gun crime summit" -- with top police from areas with high gun crime rates, customs and Crown prosecutors, immigration officials and community representatives, to study how best to step up efforts to tackle the growing problem of gun crime.
Specifically the meeting looked at guns and their use in drug crime and gang warfare, international lessons and how best to harness community involvement in addressing the problem.
The meeting decided, among other measures, to:
Offer an amnesty for people who hand in guns to the police;
To look at how young people can be given an alternative to drug and gun culture;
To ensure closer co-ordination of law enforcement work on drugs and gun crime, recognising the close link between the two types of crime.
The smuggling of cocaine into Britain from Jamaica by men and women who swallow the drug in small pellets, has been well-documented by this newspaper and other media.
In July 2002 this newspaper ran a three-part series on a woman who had made six trips to England in 14 months having swallowed cocaine for which she was supposed to be paid 1,000 pounds for each 30 pellets. (However even when she carried 112, she was paid only 3,000 pounds, the excuse being that some of the pellets were smaller than others.)
Doctors at the Kingston Public Hospital say they have come across couriers who have swallowed 175 pellets with 2.1 kilos of cocaine. At the current exchange rate this stash would translate into £124,000 or J$9.9 million in street sales in London! And just imagine 30 of these drug mules clearing immigration at London Heathrow or London Gatwick, in a week.
Before the IonScan drug trace detection equipment began operation at Sangster International Airport, Montego Bay, and Norman Manley International Airport, east Kingston, on June 1, 2002, identifying cocaine mules before they got on their planes, drug traffickers here would pack British Airways and Air Jamaica flights with cocaine swallowers, and it was not unusual to have 30 and more arriving at London's Gatwick and Heathrow international airports on one flight.
There was a case early in 2002 in which 26 cocaine swallowers were arrested in one week, with 22 more being held the following week. Depending on the purity of the cocaine, which is converted into 'crack,' a kilo of cocaine could fetch £62,000 and more on the streets of London. And it is estimated that every kilo of cocaine seized prevents 5,000 deals on the streets of the UK.
An indication of the volume of the traffic is provided by statistics from the Kingston Public Hospital. In 2000 it saw just 17 cases involving drug mules who had ingested cocaine; in 2001 it saw 54 and in the first nine months of 2002 it saw 532 cases, 250 of them being admitted to the hospital. The Gleaner's Health Page which reported the figures, observed: "In fact these cases have become so common over the past few years that the hospital has developed a cadre of clinical staff extremely skilled at detecting the carriers."
The British law enforcement authorities have widened their fight against drug traffickers. They are now going after drug money and other property or cash derived from criminal transactions. On December 30, 2002 the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 came into force in the UK. It will allow police and customs officers to search for and seize and forfeit criminals' cash.
The new visa arrangement took effect from a minute into January 9, 2003 with transitional arrangements in place to assist bona fide visitors who are travelling to the UK directly from Jamaica, who bought their tickets to travel on or before January 8 and who would arrive in the UK before a minute to midnight on January 14. Visas may be applied for at the British High Commission in Kingston or Jamaicans resident in other countries may apply at the local British visa-issuing diplomatic mission. The visa costs £36.
Thanks to the drug mules, the decent, law-abiding visitor from Jamaica is now up against an impossible task -- proving the negative -- that he or she will not remain in Britain beyond the time allotted by the immigration authorities.
