In the calypso “Good Citizen,” Mighty Sparrow smokes out so-called upstanding people who commit white-collar crimes and are protected by the law.
Sparrow sings: “They control bootlegging, dope-peddling, prostitution and piracy/ These good citizens are the architects of economic slavery.”
The compelling calypso comes to mind amid Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s unrelenting challenge to deep-rooted and flourishing drug cartels.
And now Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander’s has revealed that the United States provided a list of people linked to illegal drugs, firearms trafficking, and violent crime.
Alexander told the Express the US has supplied intelligence and “they know exactly who they can work with and who they can trust…”
The Americans, through the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and other bodies, have been providing such data for years on drug networks, firearm traders, gang leaders, money launderers and other entrenched criminals.
A startling 2019 report and subsequent studies said prominent businessmen, along with small and medium-sized operators, were working the Caribbean drug corridor, with Trinidad and Tobago a logistics hub.
Some shady business people are tied to manufacturing, importation and distribution, while others shield behind fronts of groceries, hardware and other retail activities.
Because drug transshipment through T&T affects the US, there are several reports from the DEA, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, Department of State, Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the resident embassy in Port of Spain.
In addition, the US briefed the Rowley Government in Washington and POS.
Venezuelan-based drug gangs, wide-open coastal borders, corrupt law enforcement officers who falsify reports, and “high-level complicity” were identified.
To invoke Sparrow, the real criminals “are all high in society” but “the government protecting all ah dem and penalising you and me.”
For years, the T&T authorities were told of “parasite smuggling,” in which traffickers use scuba divers to attach waterproof and vacuum-sealed cocaine packages to the hulls of cargo ships.
With its enormous and modern resources, the Americans understand the lay of the land.
They have data on drugs being brought in with legitimate cargo, use of magnetic drones, and mid-ocean drops.
A list of “persons of interest” was long available.
But the previous administration evidently had no appetite to take down the cartel, in spite of the historic number of murders stemming from their trade.
Sparrow again: “These fake and phonies enjoy a long life of luxury/ While they spread corruption through the country.”
And: “When they should be arrested/ They are protected and respected.”
Caricom’s 20-year-old Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) has been an idle bystander as tiny tourist islands are ravaged by drugs and guns.
Ms. Persad-Bissessar’s resolve is the region’s first persistent leadership crusade against embedded drug barons.
