Narco Trafficking in Trinidad

[pete]

You don't have to look far to see where the money is going.. when retail places are selling items at wholesale prices and expanding rapidly on expensive real estate it's probably not just because they're "good businessmen".

[The Paleontologist]

You don't have to look far to see where the money is going.. when retail places are selling items at wholesale prices and expanding rapidly on expensive real estate it's probably not just because they're "good businessmen".

A certain $2 aloo pie place comes to mind *scratches head*

[pioneer]

This is so new and exciting, thanks guardian.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

This is basic common knowledge that every Trini knows by default. I am not sure how this is any sort of news.

[sliderz1]

[zoom rader]

Well done Scott drug report from 30 years ago.

[1UZFE]

RIP Urvashi..

Reporter goes missing...
Griffith "we will not rest till this case is solved"

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2015-01- ... -smugglers

Tough to catch drug smugglers



Cracks in our Borders

Today, she chats with some sources who have been involved in the activity or seen it on a regular basis in part two of her six-part series on the trade titled Cracks in Our Borders.

The geographical location of Trinidad and Tobago is not the reason the country is a preferred transit point for international drug cartels drug researcher Darius Figueira says. Figueira says drug smugglers are mainly attracted to regions where the transit countries are open to infiltration. “What you are looking for is states with porous borders, ridiculously porous borders and in the Caribbean we are noted for our porous borders,” Figueira told Guardian Media Limited.

The United Nations, the International Organisation for Migration and the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) all describe of T&T’s borders as porous. The DEA believes the drugs enter transit points via high speed boats to unmanned coastal areas, but Figueira says illicit items are entering in many different ways, including “containerised cargo, speed boats, mixing product in with ‘legal ones’ and swallowers/mules.”

In T&T there are two legal air ports and 13 legal sea ports of entry. But Professor Andy Knight, head of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, says securing the “illegal” ports or unmanned coastal areas is a challenge for law enforcement members. “Trinidad has a long border to monitor along and not enough resources to monitor. It makes it easier for drug runners to use Trinidad as a transit point,” Knight said.

Fishermen across the country serve as the eyes at sea, taking in boats as they go and come. Many of them either merely observe or, lured by the prospect of making a lot of fast money, become part of the illegal drug trade A Moruga fisherman said that region is busy with such illegal activity.

“Things happen here, things is happening on the South Eastern coast. I does be on the water at night twenty-four seven. I does see movements of suspicious vessels all over the place and I sees not a Coast Guard,” he said. Cedros is also another known popular landing point for drug shipments. A fisherman in the North meanwhile said drug runners entering through unmanned ports was a regular occurrence.

“I have been fishing many nights and boats with no lights speeding past from Trinidad to Venezuela. Sometimes I in the Bocas fishing and a pirogue will pass and about an hour after a Venezuelan boat will pass.” The illicit cargo, both guns and drugs, is transferred from boat to boat. There’s another method, the drop-off, which sees neither party at the same location at the same time.

Knight has himself gone on the ground to do his own research on this method of operations. “Some islands on the North West are used as drop off points for some of these drugs, and you don’t know if it may be a fisherman in those waters picking up and carrying the drugs. It therefore becomes complex for the Coast Guard to deal with this problem.”

Record haul at Monos Island
In 2005, 1.75 tonnes of cocaine were seized at Monos Islands. The drugs carried a street value of $700 million. An Uzi machine gun, four handguns, two assault rifles and 247 rounds of assorted ammunition were also seized. Two Trinidadians, five Venezuelans and an Antiguan were arrested.

$30,000 a trip
Another fisherman gave an account of what he has seen first-hand. “The Venezuelans come in and would go on the island on a marked spot and hide the drugs overnight. The next team would pick it up and run ashore with it.” This method is not always fool-proof as either Coast Guard members, rival drug gangs or people merely looking to profit indirectly, could get to it before the intended pick-up team, the fisherman later explained.

“There is fellows—like pirates—who specialise in robbing drug runners. As a drug runner you don’t only have to look out for the Coast Guard, cause it have other fellows marking you to take it from you," he said. The profits from “running drugs” prove to be so lucrative that even talented and successful fishermen have been abandoning their trade. “When you go for drugs you could make $30,000 as a runner. I am telling you, as a fisherman who run and go for drugs you could make $30,000 a night.

“Who would want to take their money and buy gas and bait and when you go out you not guaranteed to catch a fly?” the fisherman rationalised. But while drugs are one evil, he says there is another which make the fishermen think twice to accept a job.
“Fellows who does move drugs fraid guns. Fellows who does take work, strangely enough, once guns involved they want to back out.” He said there was also little fear of being caught by the Coast Guard.

Yet there is another element to this, as sometimes those given the responsibility for protecting the country’s borders are also perpetrators of the crime. “A lot of drug runners does get caught too, but because the Coast Guard men keeping the drugs they not going to arrest you. They going to let you go, but seize your drugs.”

Griffith responds
Contacted on this allegation, Minister of National Security Gary Griffith said while corruption of members of the Coast Guard was possible, it was important for the fishermen to make formal reports so that such individuals could be “weeded out” from the service. Addressing T&T’s borders, Griffith said he believed they are safe compared to other islands in the region.

“Many times people will criticise us for this road march we continue to hear about the borders being porous, but it is a fact in comparison to many other islands and the size of T&T, we have done pretty well," Griffith said

[16 cycles]

The court also heard that in conjunction with the Sea Mist a series of yachts left their Chaguaramas anchorages laden with cocaine and even heroin for England and ports in Europe. Two other vessels also were given similar treatment at Chaguaramas. They are the yacht The Aquarius, with 226.6 kilos of cocaine for delivery to Antigua in 1994, and The Obsession, with over 200 kilos of cocaine destined for Britain in 1996. Local intelligence authorities are said to be closely working with their international counterparts on Monday’s bust. - See more at: http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/news ... VTRJ1.dpuf

hope she follows this trail as well....

[Les Bain]

this is just another investigative piece with no real purpose.

[j.o.e]

It's a piece to sell papers...Nothing to see here. People will buy hoping for some juicy, new information. All this sounds like the normal stories that been shared over and over for years in rumshops

[airuma]

Who owns Guardian???

[dougla_boy]

until i hear names drop, people in court and evidence, dis piece is sh!t....best she did do a haiku on a piece of used tp

[j.o.e]

Trinidad needs an anonymous website for whistle blowing ..nothing will ever make it to the 'real' media

[Redman]

Allyuh want the woman to get killed/fired before the series done?

The media is adept at creating the hype-they sell papers and ads.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

It's a piece to sell papers...Nothing to see here. People will buy hoping for some juicy, new information. All this sounds like the normal stories that been shared over and over for years in rumshops

Spot on I must say. Not just rum shops, taxi drivers etc.

So this means I could become a reporter and do a story on how Trinis does buy sheit no matter how high the price goes up?
I could a grand story on how Trinis never stop buying KFC even though the price keeps going up for no good reason? A story about how Trinis does complain but they still buying sheit?

This story the Guardian did is about as informative and useful as a diabetic in a rum shop telling me how in 1958 he see ah Lagahoo in the bush behind the neighbor friend house under the big tree to the left of the mangoo tree.

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

It's a piece to sell papers...Nothing to see here. People will buy hoping for some juicy, new information. All this sounds like the normal stories that been shared over and over for years in rumshops

Spot on I must say. Not just rum shops, taxi drivers etc.

So this means I could become a reporter and do a story on how Trinis does buy sheit no matter how high the price goes up?
I could a grand story on how Trinis never stop buying KFC even though the price keeps going up for no good reason? A story about how Trinis does complain but they still buying sheit?

This story the Guardian did is about as informative and useful as a diabetic in a rum shop telling me how in 1958 he see ah Lagahoo in the bush behind the neighbor friend house under the big tree to the left of the mangoo tree.

To be fair you still keep posting even though most of tuner says you post drivel. Guardian makes money so I guess that's their incentive.

What's yours?

[Dizzy28]

The court also heard that in conjunction with the Sea Mist a series of yachts left their Chaguaramas anchorages laden with cocaine and even heroin for England and ports in Europe. Two other vessels also were given similar treatment at Chaguaramas. They are the yacht The Aquarius, with 226.6 kilos of cocaine for delivery to Antigua in 1994, and The Obsession, with over 200 kilos of cocaine destined for Britain in 1996. Local intelligence authorities are said to be closely working with their international counterparts on Monday’s bust. - See more at: http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/news ... VTRJ1.dpuf

hope she follows this trail as well....

If any Government administration of Trinidad decide to stop them Laventillians and Beethamites from using their yachts, marinas, ports and private islands we could put a serious dent in the drug trade!!

[Spitfir3]

such info
much new
damn.

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

Legal ports a platform for drug cartels via Unholy alliances

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2015-01- ... -alliances



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 charged with trying to prevent the activity.

Today, she chats with some sources on how the drugs are brought into the country in part three of her six-part series on the trade titled Cracks in Our Borders.

Illicit trade researcher Darius Figueira says that boat running brings only the leftovers of drug cargo into T&T. “The good old days of product coming in on pirogues and floating across the Gulf of Paria, that is now passé. The prime method is containerised cargo,” he told the Guardian Media Limited (GML) Enterprise Desk.

He said other than being geographically close, T&T’s involvement in international trade provided a bigger platform for international drug cartels—the prospect of conducting their illicit trade under the guise of seemingly legitimate businesses. He said, “Any trafficker worth his salt would want to mix his product with the products that enter and exit T&T, because we have the volume of trade and financial volume by which traffickers will mix their product and dirty money,” he said.

Minister of National Security Gary Griffith has a similar opinion. “Obviously we have heavy illegal entry of guns and drugs into the country. Is it because of illegal ports of entry or is it through legitimate ports of entry through containers or people who enter through the airport?” he asked.

In January 2014, TT$644 million dollars’ worth of cocaine was intercepted in a container in Norfolk, United States. The drugs were hidden in crates of a fruit juice which is manufactured here in T&T and this country was its port of origin.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation stepped in to help T&T police with the case, but the public is yet to hear of any substantial breakthrough, although Griffith and the police repeatedly said during the course of last year that it was being thoroughly investigated and was at a sensitive stage.

Head of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, Professor Andy Knight, agrees with the theory that drug cartels transport their cargo through legal means, which means that legal ports would necessarily have to be infiltrated. The lack of proper infrastructure to deal with the millions of containers which come into these ports annually, including modern scanners, is but one weakness which the drug cartels take advantage of.

“It seems as though there is a fair amount of corruption at the ports of entry and, also, I don’t think there is sufficient security at the ports of entry in T&T to be able to deal with every single cargo ship. What they’re doing is spot checking,” Knight said.

ILLEGAL ECONOMIES
The UN estimated that during the period January to June 2008, 564 metric tonnes of cocaine were transited by sea through the Caribbean.This is equivalent to about 20 40-foot containers filled with cocaine.

Retired Commodore Anthony Franklin, then in his capacity as director of the Institute of Marine Affairs, also pointed out that 90 per cent of drugs entering the Caribbean reached its final destination, in a document titled Prevention and Suppression of Transnational Organised Crime, which used figures for the 2007-2008 period.

Prof Knight says in order to move these shipments, underworld elements forge alliances not only with customs officials but at every echelon necessary to keep the business afloat. “The real issue is that there is so much money involved, in some cases revenues surpass the revenues or GDPs of countries in the region,” Knight said.

He said this was the money which churned small economies and created symbiotic relationships throughout societies, making it difficult for all states to fight trafficking. They can outspend you, they can outpace you—speedier boats than Coast Guard, sometimes [they] have light aircraft—making them more difficult to deal with this type of organisation with the limited amount of revenue.”

Once the cargo got to its destination, Knight said, money laundering then put the dirty money to illicit use and shell companies were set up to funnel payments through a process of over or under invoicing. Economist Dr Roger Hosein explained how this worked. “So you may buy something from Colombia for two million dollars that is really for 40 dollars and the surplus money is used to pay for other type of products,” he said.

Corrupt officials
The International Security Sector Advisory Team’s current country profile of T&T says, “Reports of corruption among the police, the armed forces and customs officials are also frequent, and many officials are not properly or routinely vetted.” One senior Customs and Excise officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all cargo entering our ports of entry was subject to checks, except delivery-authorised containers.

“When the shipper has been compliant, with a proven track record of paying all taxes, you know everything has been above board; they get a green clearance,” he said, in explaining what the delivery-authorised system means. But all other cargo is selected at random for scanning.

“This means we take out everything from the container and we go through it and make sure the same items declared are the same items in it, because we have had cases where things are not dutiable and too many items in containers were not declared,” he said. Over the years, he said, drug smugglers had also been innovative in how they brought in their cargo, even hiding the contraband in hollowed out vegetables and power tools.

Asked why each container was not scanned given the issues with shipments of contraband, he said, “If you have to do each container it will be time consuming and there would be people who would have to pay a lot of demurrage, so you pick and choose shippers, especially first-time shippers.” This system is not unique to T&T. Indeed, Figueira says, even in the United States it’s impossible to check every shipment.

“The volume of trade and product moving into the USA, [there is] no way you can flag everything and search everything 100 per cent," Figueira said. Figueira also said traffickers flooded the State with a torrent of narcotics, so little could be done to combat the contraband world. They also ensured that the bulk of their product got to its destination by recruiting customs officials, he said.

“Don’t send anything by chance. Make sure when my product lands you have customs officers on duty to clear it,” he said.

[cornfused]

This is topic that many find interesting. The biggest consumers of drugs are in the North . We are just a transhipment point . Most if not all Cartels can have resources to defeat most control mechanisms. Right now Mexico is the largest point of transmission for drugs heading to the US . Drugs may come her by go fast boats, fishing boats with 400 hp , larger vessels , persons on boat on planes , containers , small aircraft . The Scott Drug Report was never taken seriously maybe because it was too shocking and harsh for Trinidad to bear at this time . Players have changed maybe . Effects here have been as the articles have said stealing of shipments from gangs and inter gang activity , illegal guns on the streets , mixing of public funds and real estate prices .

[Slartibartfast]

You forgot submarines. They using submarines so that the only thing above the water is a small clear dome for them to see above the water. That way it impossible to pick up from aircrafts or boats at night and even infrared has a problem seeing it as it is under the water.

[pugboy]

this darius figueria expert chap not saying anything new.....

[zoom rader]

You forgot submarines. They using submarines so that the only thing above the water is a small clear dome for them to see above the water. That way it impossible to pick up from aircrafts or boats at night and even infrared has a problem seeing it as it is under the water.

Duh say semi subs, rfari will not be pleased.

[SMc]

this darius figueria expert chap not saying anything new.....

I don't think they have asked him anything we did not already know or a more likely scenario is that they pulled excerpts from previous interviews and passing it off as new material.

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2015-01- ... -be-bought

Drug cartels use oldest trick in book - State officials can be bought


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.”

[Redman]

Borders not porus

We are a massive illegal drug transhipment point

reconcile these two statements

[Hyperion]

why she only interviewing Darius Figueria and Andy Knight? She afraid to step out of her UWI safe bubble?

as I said previously, this is not an investigative piece, this is merely using print media to publish what criminologists speak about in their lectures. A lot of hearsay

Waste of time

[Slartibartfast]

Yeah nothing new. I love how 50,000 is 300 percent profit on $1500 tho.

[pioneer]

why she only interviewing Darius Figueria and Andy Knight? She afraid to step out of her UWI safe bubble?

as I said previously, this is not an investigative piece, this is merely using print media to publish what criminologists speak about in their lectures. A lot of hearsay

Waste of time

lol costatt student identified