Fighting Drug Trafficking in the Carribbean: Jamaica and Trinidad - Annotated Bibliography Example

Although marijuana is exported from Jamaica, the major threat of Caribbean countries including Jamaica and Trinidad is their role as the trans shipper of hard drugs from South America to the US. Since the mid-1970s, the US concentrated on reducing the supply especially by drug crop eradication with only mixed success because traffickers countered by altering their cultivation patterns, production techniques, and trafficking routes to avoid detection. The Obama administration has broadened the focus on citizen security and institution-building to get local populations and governments more involved in anti-drug trafficking activities.

This includes the Caribbean Security Initiative where the US government assists Caribbean countries such as Jamaica and Trinidad with rule of law, anti-corruption, community and youth development programs with funding based on the level of compliance.

2) Hall, Arthur “Drug Trafficking Driving Up Crime In The Caribbean and Central America” The Gleaner Feb. 29, 2912, retrieved from jamaicagleaner.com/g;leaner/20120229/end/end91html.This short article in Jamaica’s national newspaper, The Gleaner, states that the 2011 International Narcotics Board report claims that drug trafficking poses an even greater threat to the security of the people of Jamaica, the rest of the Caribbean and Central America, making it one of the most dangerous places in the world because of its’ role as a transit hub for drugs going from South to North America.

The report also notes the aggravating factors of political and police corruption. It is interesting to note that this situation persists in spite of the joint military/police operation in Tivoli Gardens, Kingston, Jamaica in May 2010 leading to the arrest of a drug lord, Dudus Coke, and many of his henchmen, leading to a 40 percent reduction in the local homicide rate. While this is significant, it is still much higher than North American rates, indicating there are still other drug trafficking gangs creating havoc.3).