Jamaica: Govt to sign anti-crime pacts with Cuba
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s top security official announced Tuesday that he will lead a delegation to Cuba this week to sign agreements strengthening cooperation against drug trafficking and other crimes.
Security Minister Dwight Nelson said the pacts are intended to increase intelligence sharing about the “movement of guns and drugs and the groups involved in their movement between the two countries.”
Jamaica is the Caribbean’s largest source of marijuana for the U.S. and a transshipment point for cocaine from South America to North America and Europe. The island’s gun-smuggling networks are also a long-standing security concern.
Nelson said that, although the two Caribbean neighbors have collaborated since 2006 in tracking and capturing Jamaican traffickers, a formal relationship is likely to improve the flow of information.
A leaked U.S. diplomatic memo released by WikiLeaks late last year portrayed Jamaican anti-drug officers as being so unresponsive that more than a dozen Cuban officials privately vented their frustrations to a U.S. drug enforcer in 2009.
After the leaked August 2009 communique made headlines in December, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said his government had shaken up an anti-drug police unit following Cuban complaints that the force had been uncooperative in stopping Jamaican smugglers using speedboats and small planes to move narcotics.
Since then, the prime minister said, “no concern has been expressed by officials of the Cuban government.”
More Stories
USF won’t install more physical protections following recent on-campus suicide
USF will not be implementing additional physical safety measures over a month after a student leapt from an upper floor inside the Interdisciplinary Sciences building, USF spokeswoman Althea Johnson said. The incident marked the third on-campus suicide since fall 2022. A week after a student fell from an upper floor of Beard Garage in 2022, […]
Meet USF’s new student body president and vice president
A new era of Student Government (SG) just arrived. In a quick five-minute ceremony, student body president-elect Suryakanth Prasad Gottipati and vice president-elect Sumit Subhash Jadhav were sworn in on Wednesday afternoon. Their term will start on May 6 and last for one year. Related: Take a look at USF’s student leaders’ swearing in ceremony […]
Photos: Take a look at USF’s student leaders’ swearing in ceremony
A new era of Student Government (SG) just arrived. In a quick five-minute ceremony, student body president-elect Suryakanth Prasad Gottipati and vice president-elect Sumit Subhash Jadhav were sworn in on Wednesday afternoon. Related: USF student body president and vice president-elect sworn in Their term will start on May 6 and last for one year. Gabrielle […]
President Joe Biden visits Tampa to talk abortion rights
Gearing up for the 2024 presidential election, President Joe Biden made a stop in Tampa to talk about reproductive freedom in Florida on Tuesday afternoon. The speech comes just two weeks before the state’s six-week abortion ban comes into effect on May 1. Biden called on Floridians to vote for an amendment deciding abortion access […]
‘Genocide Joe has got to go’: Pro-Palestine protestors gather during Biden’s visit to Tampa
While President Joe Biden took 15 minutes to talk on the protection of reproductive rights in Tampa on Tuesday, pro-Palestine protests chanted against the United States handling “on-going genocide” in Gaza, and its alliance to Israel in the conflict. Related: President Joe Biden visits Tampa to talk abortion rights “The lack of coverage in the media […]
USF students can ‘Swap Shop’ their way into free items this week
USF’s Swap Shop is just around the corner. Literally. Bulls can stop by the Swap Shop, located in Holly J, to pick up some free items – from furniture to clothing. Students, staff and faculty had the opportunity to donate items for the Swap Shop earlier this week on Monday and Tuesday. But ‘shopping’ won’t […]