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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Caribbean becoming 'new drug route' |
| 2010-04-19 |
| Caribbean leaders have urged the US to do more to stop the trafficking of drugs to island nations, saying support for a crackdown on cartels in Mexico has forced smugglers to find new routes through the region. The comments came during a regional security conference in Barbados attended by the US defence secretary, Robert Gates. Gates for his part acknowledged the growing problem and emphasised the need to tighten coordination between anti-drug efforts in Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States. He said the US had set aside $70m to fund law enforcement and social programmes in Caribbean countries in 2011. Such funding had declined under the previous Bush administration. The US Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that three-quarters of South American cocaine going north passes through Central America, with a much smaller portion moving through the Caribbean. But Gates said Caribbean leaders told him that the situation was getting worse due to the efforts of Plan Merida - the $1.4bn US programme started in 2007 to help Mexico fight the cartels. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #6 Yes, let's legalize dope... Since Europe and the two Americas are getting overwhelmed by muslims, ask yourself what are the reason the rags are so eager to leave home... Two reason, Islam and dope. In most muslim countries, everything is fucked by both Islam and the dopers. Loosen up on dope in North America and we will be no different that ragheadistan. See what the demon-rat doper hippies have done with the country already! look at the cokeheads in the White house, Slick Willie and Hussein Melon Head!  |
| Posted by: Hotspur666 2010-04-19 22:10 |
| #5 Using the Caribbean is nothing new--the Bush admin was so successful, they started diverting to Central America and Mexico. What is new is using the Caribbean to get cocaine to Africa and using AQ as mules, er, camels across the desert. See Opinion article 'AQ in the Sahara': "It is not often that the words "cocaine" and "al-Qaida" are plausibly linked. But these two forces are turning the western half of the Sahara - approximately from southern Libya to the Atlantic coast - into a locus of illicit money-making and radical politics. The development, quite a feat for a sparsely populated region, presents a challenge that the rich states to the north cannot afford to ignore." |
| Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2010-04-19 11:27 |
| #4 He said the US had set aside $70m to fund law enforcement and social programmes in Caribbean countries in 2011. Such funding had declined under the previous Bush administration. The Bush Admin may have cut social programs and quit going after locals with a dime bag but the targeting of the big-boy financiers and cartels was stepped up. Besides going after FARC, a major ring using AA personnel into Charlotte was prosecuted and the Coast Guard in Puerto Rico got a new high-tech cutter to patrol the region. Just intercepted $5 million worth of cocaine going from the Grenadines to Ft. Lauderdale, with Homeland Security, DEA, and other agencies working together to land more than the two sailing mules caught in the USVI. That said, way too much smuggling through our maritime borders and could just as easily be terrorists or WMD's. |
| Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2010-04-19 10:57 |
| #3 How about stopping the strategy of "Leave the drug trade to criminals!"? It's not working, and it won't work. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-04-19 10:09 |
| #2 Somebody oughta buy Gates the complete set of Miami Vice on DVD. I'll bet Barry loved Miami Vice... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-04-19 01:22 |
| #1 we haven't been able too stop them for over 30 years, what makes them think we can now/ |
| Posted by: chris 2010-04-19 00:12 |