Law Enforcement Agencies should work closer

This region is going to see increased activity in illegal drugs, and unless Eastern Caribbean countries want to see a situation similar to what existed in places like Columbia, the islands’ law enforcement agencies must work even more closely together.{{more}}

Major Edward Harvey, the Deputy Chief Military Liaison Office of the Eastern Caribbean, told SEARCHLIGHT that good work by the United States to combat drug trafficking using routes through Central America and the Western Caribbean has caused the drug dealers to look for alternative routes, like through the Eastern Caribbean from South America.

Major Harvey said that Coast Guard commanders in the various Eastern Caribbean Islands can bear witness to this heightened drug activity, but said organizations like the Regional Security System (RSS) is working very hard to combat the surge.

He said that this effort must be strengthened and if possible widened: “…before drug lords start wreaking violence and doing all the things we are seeing in our countries which have gone too far.”

“If you have go-fast boats skirting up the coast and one country sees them and twenty minutes later they are in another country’s water, you need to have good cooperation and good relations with that other country’s Coast Guard in order to stop it,” he said.(KJ)