Fri Mar 2, 2007 11:41AM EST
HAVANA (Reuters) - Fewer drug traffickers are using Cuba as a corridor
to the United States thanks to tough enforcement and cooperation with
other countries, the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma said on Friday.
Cuba intercepted 1.7 metric tons of marijuana and cocaine in 2006, the
lowest level of seizures in 11 years, it said.
Smugglers fly shipments of narcotics up from Jamaica and Colombia and
drop bales into the sea between thousands of uninhabited islands off
Cuba's north coast for pick up in speedboats that ship the drugs to the
U.S. market.
Severe prison sentences and the exchange of information with police
forces of neighboring countries -- though not the United States -- have
helped crack down on the illegal trade, Granma said.
"The shipments decrease. The routes of international drug traffickers
are moving away from our coasts," the paper said.
The U.S. government, Cuba's longtime ideological enemy, has not
cooperated with Havana's war on drug trafficking and Washington has
refused to sign agreements proposed by Cuba to jointly fight the
narcotics trade, Granma said.
Nonetheless, Cuba last month deported suspected top Colombian drug lord
Luis Hernando Gomez to Bogota where he is wanted for extradition by
Washington to face trafficking charges in the United States.
Gomez, known as "Scratch" and one of the heads of the powerful Norte del
Valle drug gang, was arrested at Havana airport in 2004 for entering
Cuba on a forged Venezuelan passport.
During 2006, Cuba picked up 1,243 pounds of marijuana and 225 pounds of
cocaine along its coast, and a tip from another country helped its coast
guard intercept a shipment of 1,980 pounds of marijuana, Granma said.
Information provided by Cuba led to the seizure of five metric tons of
cocaine by neighboring countries, it said.
Cuba has a small drug use problem -- police seized only 79 pounds of
narcotics in the country last year.
Cuban authorities say the country's incipient domestic drug market has
grown since Cuba opened up to international tourism in the 1990s.
Foreigners caught smuggling drugs are given stiff jail terms.
Last year small quantities of narcotics for personal use were seized
from 284 foreigners visiting Cuba, Granma said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0243540120070302
No comments:
Post a Comment