Multi-media journalist Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine has been investigating T&T’s flourishing illegal drug trade for the past several weeks. That journey has taken her to several parts of the country for extensive interviews with several people involved in the trade, people who have been researching it and members of the law enforcement agencies and government charged with trying to prevent the activity.
Today, she looks at the age-old theory that there may be state involvement in the trade and the system set up to detect illegal drug shipments in part four of her six-part series on the trade titled Cracks in Our Borders.
Head of International Relations at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Andy Knight and drug trade researcher Darius Figueira both believe there is State involvement in the international drug trade.
They argue that the only way narcotics can be successfully moved in and out of T&T as successfully as it has been over the years, with little or no detection, is with the cooperation of the State and its agencies.
“I can’t say for sure which parliamentarians, government sources are being corrupted by drug traffickers, but I’m sure this happens and sometimes it captures the state,” Knight told Guardian Media Limited’s Enterprise Desk.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if, for example, some drug cartels are able to get some politicians by simply giving them cash necessary to fund political campaigns to get him into power.”
Such an investment by a drug cartel would reap dividends since payback would be guaranteed.
“Once in power, the cartel would one day demand something, whether it’s closing a blind eye or maybe some money is used to corrupt the police force or the military force.”
Even the Jamaican Gleaner wrote of this possibility in a February 2002 editorial, saying party financing from the private sector has significantly decreased over the years.
“The contamination of the electoral process and party finance by drug money has therefore become a clear and present danger across the Caribbean,” the paper wrote.
In 1989, 50 police officers were suspended and then commissioner of police Randolph Burroughs resigned after allegations of their involvement in a drug cartel.
The International Security Sector Advisory Team’s current country profile of T&T states, “In the early 2000s, the government faced accusations that many high-level officials ...had ties to gang leaders.”
Give to get back
Figueira said this allegation is nothing new.
“That’s the oldest tactic, starting with Pablo Escobar, corrupting officials of the state. And how do you corrupt them, by literally deluging them with money.”
He added, “Every dollar you spend to corrupt the state, you are in fact purchasing impunity. Governments are willing to pick low lying fruit— the easiest application to win the most votes.”
Explaining this, he said the drug of choice in Trinidad—marijuana—may be targeted while the cocaine is allowed to come into the country.
Marijuana can be locally grown and while there is a vast difference in the profit margin between cocaine and marijuana, the latter activity at least has the advantage of allowing the drug cartels to conduct it inland in some of the dense forests available.
The US Department of State’s 2014 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report on T&T also uncovered a new trend where Jamaican nationals in this country barter shipments of marijuana for cocaine for re-export.
MORE INFO
Drug trade researcher Darius Figueira gave an insight into the trading of drugs
• One kilo of cocaine costing US$1,500, if successfully trafficked to Europe, wholesales for about US$50,000. That’s almost 33 times its cost and a profit of over 300 per cent.
• Ten per cent of the profit from drugs goes to traffickers.
GRIFFITH: BORDERS NOT POROUS
Minister of National Security Gary Griffith says T&T borders are comparatively safe.
“Many times people will criticise us for this road march we continue to hear about the borders being porous, but in fact in comparison to many other islands and the size of T&T we have done pretty well,” he told GML.
In 2006, the then government invested in a $130 million Israeli 360 degree coastal radar system. Ten radar sites across the country were erected and the data obtained was supposed to be transmitted to the national radar centre for monitoring.
Years later, reports surfaced that the radars were not functional. In 2011 the system was upgraded and repaired, Griffith said, but it is now all about how the intelligence gained from the system is used.
“Now that we have locked down the radar with that 360 degree what happens next? It’s all well and good people at the radar centre can monitor movements, but how do you respond to it?”
HOLES IN RADAR NET
The GML team visited eight of the 10 sites across the country— San Fernando Hill, Toco, Manzanilla, Moruga, Cedros, Point Galeota, Charlotteville and Bacolet. The two others, we were told, are located in Staubles Bay and Chacachacare.
Two of the eight radar sites were not functional. The radar at Manzanilla was motionless and residents said it had been that way for the past 10 years. The one at Point Galeota was missing—the tower stood erect but there was no radar at the top.
Griffith said the locations are not hidden but are guarded.
“For obvious reasons you would not want to pinpoint areas where these things are. There are concerns of sabotage,” he said.
“The more people know, they try to see who working there, they can be—it’s not top secret but we do not expose to the public, to let them know exactly where the radar centres are.”
Told that the two non-functional radars were adjoining each other and meant that almost 50 miles of coastline were unprotected, Griffith said, “Obviously I will not make mention of areas which there may be blind spots, obviously for national security reasons.
“However, if one aspect is down there are others that overlap. There are other radars which would overlap into those which you cited, so it’s not to give the impression that because it’s not spinning, it’s automatically seen that these things are not working.”