Camille Clarke

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er Mervyn Richard­son said there has been an in­crease in Cari­com na­tion­als en­ter­ing the coun­try to car­ry out crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty. Richard­son was speak­ing at yes­ter­day's dai­ly news brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain.

This came on the heels of the ar­rest of a Ja­maican na­tion­al at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port on Thurs­day night. The 39-year-old woman, from Mon­tego Bay, Ja­maica, was ar­rest­ed and ap­peared be­fore an Ari­ma mag­is­trate yes­ter­day. A re­port said around 7.40 pm, of­fi­cers of the Or­gan­ised Crime, Nar­cotics and Firearms Bu­reau searched the lug­gage of the woman, who ar­rived on board flight BW 415 from Ja­maica.

On check­ing her lug­gage, they found a sil­ver-wrapped pack­age al­leged­ly con­tain­ing com­pressed plant-like ma­te­r­i­al with a weight of 1,372.5 grammes with a street val­ue of $20,000. "We are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the num­ber of Cari­com cit­i­zens com­ing in­to the coun­try with drugs," Richard­son said.

"We have seen a marked in­crease since last Au­gust, and that is the ex­tent that we have found a re­la­tion be­tween us and Ja­maica." He said oth­er agen­cies through­out the Caribbean are as­sist­ing, in­clud­ing Ja­maican law en­force­ment. Asked about the prob­lems with the 21st-cen­tu­ry polic­ing ini­tia­tive, Richard­son said: "Those com­plaints have not come to my ears. We have chal­lenges and teething prob­lems, but those prob­lems are new to me."