The Jamaican gangsters who control most of the inner-city crack trade have a reputation in the British criminal underworld that is both fearsome and unrivalled.

In little over a decade they have, with their willingness to use firearms at the slightest provocation, transformed the face of criminality in the UK and the nature of the police response to it. Scotland Yard, once internationally famed for equipping its officers with nothing more than a short wooden truncheon, has been forced to assemble a heavily-armed, 200-strong team - code-named Operation Trident - specifically to take on the Yardie problem.

But in London and other cities the bloodshed gets worse. The Trident team investigated 18 murders and 23 attempted murders in London last year and have already investigated four murders so far this year. Jamaicans have also been linked to a series of shootings in Birmingham and Manchester - sometimes now nicknamed "Gunchester". Last July at the predominantly Jamaican carnival in the western city of Bristol, four people were shot.

Detective Inspector Bruce Ballsgher, who runs Operation Atrium in Bristol, said: "We believe the major part of the crack supply revolves around Jamaican organised crime groups. They drive their drugs trade dealing by fear, intimidation and violence."

In Leeds, Operation Stirrup, set up last year to investigate black-on-black violence, made 160 arrests and led to 57 people being deported to Jamaica. A new initiative, Operation Safeguard, led to 30 more arrests in January. But Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Sellers, who heads the London-based Trident Squad, believes the blood-letting linked to the burgeoning crack cocaine trade goes far beyond the Jamaican gangsters. He feels more and more home-grown British blacks are behind many of the shootings on the streets of London, possibly taking instructions from bigger bosses in Jamaica or the USA.

"When we look at the figures of who have been doing the shootings and who are the victims, only 35 per cent are Jamaican-born which suggest that we have more home-grown problems than imported ones," said Superintendent Sellers. "We have occasions where violence has broken out here in the UK as a consequence of something which happened in Jamaica. I have no doubt that orders do come across from Jamaica to sort things out, and on occasions people are being sent from Jamaica to do the work. But we don't see any evidence to support the idea that everything is being orchestrated directly from Jamaica.

"Yes there are people in Jamaica we are very interested in and we know have a great influence on what's going on here, but that tends to be around the drugs market as opposed specifically to the violence. The violence arises out of the drugs world. Clearly there are people pulling strings as the mules are recruited in Jamaica by Jamaicans to bring the drugs here and in that way you can say the Jamaicans are driving the drugs market."

Whatever the arguments, the increase in the number of "drug mules" and the alarming rise of gun crimes associated with the drug trade have forced the British Government to consider introducing a visa system for Jamaicans coming to Britain. Jamaica's Minister of National Security and Justice Dr. Peter Phillips revealed that it was a live issue within the British Government based upon his discussions with Home Office representatives during a recent trip to the UK.

Dr. Phillips reportedly made the point to his British counterparts that it must be recognised that Jamaica was not the major source of cocaine importation to the United Kingdom and that the drug mules are a minuscule component of the overall cocaine problem. He said it would be unfortunate for the UK Government to seem to be applying a broad-brush restriction to the entire Jamaican population in order to deal with activities of a small minority of persons who in turn do not constitute the major part of the cocaine importation problem into Britain.

"It would not be advantageous to anyone in the Jamaican community. It won't solve the drug problem because the druggists are very adaptable. If there is a route in that way they will target other people to do it."

The real solutions to the drug problem, he said, is to build a co-operative agreement among governments. The Jamaican government is willing to lead the way. We are eager to do it; we recognise it is in our interest to have this co-operation. The fight against the illegal drugs trade is an international fight."

Without elaborating, Dr. Phillips said there are other measures that are being contemplated jointly between Jamaican law enforcement agencies and their counterparts in Britain which could effectively eliminate the vast majority of cocaine importation. These measures should be given a chance to work before the establishment of a visa requirement, he said. These new initiatives are believed to be the introduction of new scanning equipment to screen for and detect drugs in both luggage and passengers at Jamaica's two international airports. This is to be implemented soon.

The British Government has also provided assistance for improved communication, surveillance and detection equipment as well as training and legal support for the seizure of assets of convicted drug barons.

Whatever the plans, one thing is clear, the British authorities are now considering taking extreme measures to curb Jamaican drug mules from entering the UK once and for all.

• Main
• Saga of a drug mule
• Saga of a Jamaican drug mule ­ Part II
• Saga of a Jamaican drug mule ­ Part III
• Smugglers risking their lives, say UK cops
  
• I was misled, says prisoner
  
• Yardie crime, drugs force UK change
• Visa scare

Related Article
Britain, Jamaica and their drug problems

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