Searching for some good:
Bahama Journal Editorial -
Nassau, Bahamas:

The government should – as matters of the most urgent priority- take steps to see to it that all funds and all assets that are drugs and guns related should be used to establish an account that would be earmarked for socially beneficial projects.

Our view is that just as it happens to be that these trades are socially destructive; it also stands to reason that some of the resources derived from these nasty trades should be used to help certain categories of victims.

Highest on our list would be those people who are caught up in the coils of one addiction or the other.

Yesterday we were left flabbergasted when we learned how large a bust it was that the police had made. Here reference is to that stash of guns, drugs and other crime related paraphernalia that had been found by the police.

We were agog when there was reference to some seven million dollars.

We were also a bit puzzled concerning the precision number that the public was given. We were left in wonderment as we tried to figure out how anyone could actually count out seven million dollars.

Making matters even more intriguing was the fact that someone was able to make a learned determination that a small amount of the loot was actually counterfeit banknotes, Bahamian and United States currencies, no less.

This is a part of a bigger story.

That story is told – in part at least – by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

We have no reason to disbelieve Drug Enforcement Administration officials who tell us that "the international drug syndicates operating throughout our hemisphere are resourceful, adaptable and extremely powerful. These syndicates have an unprecedented level of sophistication and they are far more organized and influential than any organized crime enterprise preceding them…

"Traditional organized crime, operating within the United States from the turn of the century to the present time, simply cannot compare to the Colombian and Mexican organizations operating in mainland U.S. and the Caribbean area today.

"Today’s international crime syndicates have at their disposal an arsenal of technology, weapons and allies --- corrupted law enforcement and government officials --- enabling them to dominate the illegal drug market in ways we never thought possible. Today’s drug syndicate leaders are able to oversee a multi-billion dollar cocaine and heroin industry which affects every aspect of American life."

These DEA folks know what they are talking about when they say that "these drug lords, who mastermind trans-global organizations responsible for every facet of the drug trade, are almost immune to conventional law enforcement strategies…"

Police revealed on Wednesday that they seized more than $7 million during a major bust in Grand Bahama on Sunday and they also confiscated more than $2 million worth of drugs as well as a cache of dangerous weapons.

The officials have called it the largest bust in the history of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

Police found some105 kilos of cocaine valued at $2 million and 70 pounds of marijuana valued at $80,000.

It is also being reported that the police have also confiscated $51,000 in counterfeit U.S and Bahamian currency.

Among the high-powered weapons seized were six 7.62 caliber rifles, four nine millimeter pistols, three shotguns and one .38 pistol, bringing the count of weapons seized to 14.

Note also that more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition were also seized.

While this is good news, we must make the point that this bust is but one in a long series of other busts that have taken place in The Bahamas.

There will – for sure – be others.

No matter how you cut it, the drugs trade business is a canker that just will not go away.

Even now, we pray for the coming of that day when the illicit trade in drugs is no more.

But for now, we live in a real world where bad things do happen. It is a world where innocent men, women and children do get hurt and it is a world where many of these innocent ones also perish.

Much of this is the stuff that routinely makes the news.

Our concern today has to do with what good – if any – can be squeezed from this awful business called the drugs trade.

We believe that the answer is in the affirmative.

22 June 2007