By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

IN marking the opening of a regional drug enforcement conference, National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage lamented the impact that murder and crime rates are having on global perceptions of countries in the region.

“As you are all aware, our region continues to attract the attention of the world as a place where murder and crime rates are high,” he told those attending the 23rd Annual Caribbean Regional Conference on International Drug Enforcement. “These crime rates are fuelled by the trade in illegal drugs, illegal firearms, psychotropic substances, and precursor chemicals. Of critical concern is the flow of illegal firearms into our region and the propensity with which prolific offenders in our countries use them to cause serious harm and to purvey death.”

Drugs and illegal firearms “go hand in hand,” Dr Nottage said, noting that in 2016, 85 per cent of murders in The Bahamas were committed with the aid of an illegal firearm.

“While these were predominantly cases of ‘prolific offenders attacking each other’ we cannot ignore the fact that the victims are human beings with a right to life,” he said.

“Further, these news stories send a very bad signal to the world about us as a people.”

Previous meetings of this kind have been helpful in the past, Dr Nottage said.

Noting that there was an increase in the amount of cocaine passing through Bahamian waters in 2016, he said Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) officers seized 3,539.46 pounds of cocaine, 4,077 pounds of marijuana, 40 illegal firearms of various descriptions, and 289 rounds of assorted ammunition. The cocaine seized in 2016 was a 56 per cent increase from over 2015.

In addition, 847 drug cases were placed before the Magistrate’s Court along with 1,191 defendants.

“We are pleased with the significant seizures, we recognise the implications of these increases,” Dr Nottage said. “We are therefore mindful that the increase trafficking in illegal drugs might be an indication that international drug cartels are again seeking to infiltrate our region because of pressures upon them on the USA and Mexico borders. Further, we are patently aware that due to economic pressures in the United States of America, resources to our region might be reduced in our ongoing fight against drug trafficking organisations and trans-national organised crime groups. This is not good for our region and not good for America.”

Dr Nottage challenged conference participants to find ways to choke off the flow of illegal drugs to the region and consider ways to discourage young people and adults from dealing with drugs.