-Caveat Lector-
>From www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Britain
Britain: Behind the row over Jamaican "drug mules"
By Julie Hyland
11 January 2002
Back to screen version| Send this link by email | Email the author
A row erupted in December over so-called Jamaican �drug mules�. It
flared after British customs officers and police mounted a joint
operation against airline passengers arriving in London from the
Caribbean island. On December 12, 16 Jamaicans were arrested on
suspicion of having swallowed cocaine packages, and five days later,
22 Jamaicans were charged with attempting to smuggle a �Class A�
drug, after disembarking from an Air Jamaica flight.
Following the arrests, Phil Sinkinson, the British Deputy High Commissioner in
Jamaica, said that a newspaper report alleging one in 10 passengers from Jamaica were
smuggling drugs could be an underestimate. Dozens on eac
h flight from the Jamaican capital Kingston could be involved, he suggested.
But leading black representatives in the UK denounced Sinkinson for stirring up racial
tension. Trevor Phillips, deputy leader of the Greater London Council, argued that
Sinkinson was indulging in scare mongering, which c
ould mean Jamaican�s becoming �increasingly reluctant to help the police detect those
few who are coming in with drugs�. Phillips complained, �Perfectly innocent� Jamaicans
�will find that this is going to be used to harr
y them, to hinder them, to hold them up at airports�.
In response, Jamaican narcotics police supported Sinkinson�s statement, saying
�umpteen drugs couriers are travelling from Jamaica to the UK�. Some reports placed
the figure as being over 50 percent of passengers travelli
ng to Britain.
Jamaica does not produce cocaine, but is a major conduit for its distribution
worldwide. Much of the narcotic imported into Jamaica is destined for the European
market, especially Britain where a kilogram of cocaine can s
ell for many times its wholesale value. On top of this, the tightening of security
procedures in the US following September 11 has diverted more drugs traffic to Britain
and Europe. The Observer newspaper reports that pri
or to the attacks on New York and Washington, 50 percent of all drugs intercepted from
airline traffic in the US came from Jamaica.
Behind the present controversy, and the now repeated demands for increased security
and police measures, the more pressing issues raised by the �drug mules� scare has
gone largely unreported.
What has led to so many ordinary Jamaicans becoming embroiled in the drugs trade? The
simple answer is that although the sun-seeking tourists who visit may see the lush
Caribbean island as a tropical paradise, Jamaica is
an economic and social nightmare for many of its inhabitants.
According to the CIA World Factbook, almost one-third of the island�s 2.5 million
population live below the poverty line. This figure, which is only an estimate, is
actually 10 years out of date. Given that the last decad
e has seen a precipitous economic decline on the island, with unemployment growing to
almost 20 percent, the actual figure is much higher.
For decades the island�s main sources of income have been bauxite (mined for
aluminium) and tourism. During the 1990s, in scenes replayed around the world, the
Jamaican government began dismantling national economic contr
ols in a bid to attract greater foreign investment. In 1992, the incoming People�s
National Party (PNP) government of Prime Minister Percival James Patterson eliminated
price controls and began privatising state industrie
s.
The change was especially devastating for this small island, resulting in many
factories being closed, whilst falling commodity prices hit the bauxite industry,
which accounts for 53 percent of Jamaica�s exports. In addit
ion, the development of the North Atlantic Free Trade Area, involving the US, Canada
and Mexico, saw the island increasingly sidelined.
With a burgeoning foreign debt of $3.2 billion�$1,216 for every person living in
Jamaica�the government stepped up its bid to increase tourism (which has become the
island�s main provider of foreign exchange), particularl
y from the US, which accounts for 71 percent of all visitors. Even before September
11, however, Jamaica was losing out to other Caribbean islands.
Poverty and political corruption have fuelled an explosion in crime and crime-related
violence. Jamaica has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with more than
1,100 people murdered in 2001, an increase of 28 p
ercent on the previous year and the highest annual number ever recorded.
Many of the island�s rival gangs are affiliated to either the PNP or the Jamaica Labor
Party (JLP) led by Edward Seaga. Inter-gang violence is especially intense during
election periods. In 1980, for example, approximatel
y 700 people were killed in election-related violence. The gangs also control the
island�s lucrative drug trade.
Jamaica�s army and police have been given a free hand to enforce law and order in the
ghettos. In July last year, for example, troops backed by helicopter gunships and
tanks strafed a poor neighbourhood that has suffered
repeated gang violence. At least 27 people were killed in this operation, including
several children. According to Human rights group Amnesty International, Jamaica has
the highest per capita number of police killings per
year.
In response to business complaints, police were also directed to round up the homeless
and mentally ill men and women found on the streets in the popular tourist destination
of Montego Bay. They were said to be spoiling t
he resort�s image. Last September, the government was forced to agree to compensate a
group of 32 people who had been victims of such a dragnet. They had been tied up and
bussed almost 100 kilometres away, where they were
left near a toxic waste site.
The glaring contrast between the luxurious tourist facilities and the ghettos that are
home to many Jamaicans has fuelled social antagonisms.
Average annual per capita income is just US$2,430, with schools and hospital services
beyond the reach of many. Such is the dilapidated state of much of Jamaica�s
non-tourist infrastructure that many inhabitants are witho
ut reliable supplies of drinking water.
It was against this background that increased fuel duties and a new round of austerity
measures saw a significant growth in civil unrest and riots in many neighbourhoods
last year, which were brutally put down by the poli
ce and army.
In his remarks, High Commissioner Sinkinson was forced to acknowledge a link between
the growing trade in cocaine trafficking and the island�s economic decline. Most of
the smugglers �come from areas of pretty desperate p
overty�, he said. �The risks are quite high, but in real terms the rewards for the
couriers are equally high.�
Jamaican �drug mules� are reportedly paid between US$2,880 and US$7,200 for each trip.
Most of the smugglers are women, and many are single parents struggling to raise three
or four children and finance them through schoo
l. Others are coerced by threats of violence to act as couriers.
Some women conceal up to 100 �wraps� of cocaine about their person, or swallow and/or
insert the packages into other body orifices, placing themselves at great risk. In
October, a 30-year-old woman died on a flight from K
ingston to Heathrow when one of the 55 packages she had in her stomach burst.
Tighter security measures and tougher sentences mean that 34 percent of all women
prisoners in England and Wales are now Jamaicans who have been convicted of drug
smuggling, according to a report in the Times newspaper. T
he minimum sentence handed out to these unfortunate women is six years, with some
receiving up to 10 years imprisonment, leaving many of their children separated from
their mothers with no adequate care. After serving the
ir time they are deported back to Jamaica.
None of these repressive measures have done anything to quell the drugs trade, because
nothing has been done to ameliorate the desperate poverty which the criminal gangs can
exploit to their own ends.
On January 3, the World Bank announced a meagre US$75 million �Emergency Economic
Rehabilitation Loan� to Jamaica (less than $30 for each inhabitant). According to
Orsalia Kalantzopoulos, director of the World Bank�s prog
ramme in the Caribbean, �Within the short span of six months, Jamaica has had to
confront violence in Kingston, significant damage to agriculture and infrastructure
due to flooding associated with Hurricane Michelle and,
above all, a drastic loss of revenue in Jamaica�s tourism industry following the
tragic attacks of September 11�. But the loan is dependent upon stepping up precisely
the type of free market, austerity measures that are i
mpoverishing so many of the island�s inhabitants.
Copyright 1998-2001
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
