Pubdate: Sun, 11 Mar 2001
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2001 Chicago Tribune Company
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Author: Tribune News Services

LACK OF RESOURCES CITED IN FAILURE TO CUT DRUG FLOW

CARIBBEAN - Caribbean authorities say they are hampered by limited 
resources as they try to stem the drug flow that accounts for an estimated 
one-third of United States-bound cocaine shipments.

Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Haiti were named as major 
transshipment centers in a U.S. State Department report last week. Eastern 
islands--including St. Kitts and St. Lucia--were increasingly being used by 
traffickers, the report said.

"We have tried hard to stop cocaine from entering or leaving," Jamaica 
National Police spokesman Sgt. Jubert Llewellyn said Friday. "Frankly, 
intelligence is where we have been hurt by a lack of resources."

While the flow of cocaine through Haiti has decreased, Jamaica has become 
the region's leading transshipment point, the report said.

The report also named the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico as the entry point 
into the United States for much of the Colombian cocaine moved around the 
Caribbean, mostly in speed boats or in commercial shipping containers.
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