In Trinidad recently there have been several arresting s dealing with drug offenses. There have been so many killings in past years do to Drug trafficking not only in the U.S. but in many other countries. Patrick Manning, the prime minister of the tiny island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, has been publicly contemplating deploying the country's navy to patrol the Antilles for drug smugglers. The country was known as a Caribbean vacation. Although the Caribbean drug phenomenon involves many facets of drug production, consumption and abuse, trafficking, and money laundering, it is trafficking that best highlights the region’s strategic value. I feel as though drug trafficking will always continue to cause problems for us because customs will really never be able to put a stop to these illegal activities. Aspects of both the Caribbean’s physical and social geography make it very conducive to drug trafficking. Except for mainland Belize, French Guyana, Guyana, and Suriname, the Caribbean countries are all island territories. Some are plural island territories, such as St Vincent and the Grenadines - which comprise close to 600 islands, and the Virgin Islands - composed of about 100 islands and cays. The Bahamas is an archipelago of 700 islands and 2,000 cays. This island character permits entry into and use of Caribbean territories from hundreds of multiple places in the surrounding sea. The Caribbean countries do not have the ability to provide adequate territorial policing and security, thus producing an extreme vulnerability to trafficking.The trade of illicit drugs has quite a variety of adverse socio-economic and political effects. These activities can sometimes undermine the legal economy by contributing to an overvalued exchange rate. They contribute to increased crime and social disruption on all levels, and their adverse effects can be intensified by drug control laws. Most of the benefits and liabilities associated with the trade of drugs ultimately comes from illegality, a condition which the drug control laws establish. Illegality provides what has been called the “crime tax” - the difference between legal and illegal price markets. Drug smugglers really don't take this tax into account. Money laundering is the process used by many drug traffickers to convert bulk amounts of drug profits into legitimate monies. The need to launder conspicuously large amounts of small-denomination bills places the traffickers in a vulnerable situation with law enforcement interdiction. Tracking and interpreting this illegal flow of drug money is an important tool for identifying and dismantling international drug trafficking organizations. Drug trafficking, with its related domestic and transnational criminal activities, continues to place a great deal of pressure on various institutions - including those responsible for security and law enforcement. On several islands, the governments have invited organizations such as New Scotland Yard, the DEA and the FBI to assist them in dealing with the problem.Traffickers are highly mobile and basically unrestricted by national boundaries. They often shift their laboratories and trade routes virtually at will, preferring to go where national governments are least in control. When the Colombian government cracked down on its drug operators, they took up temporary residence in Bolivia, Miami, Panama or Peru and directed their operations from there . In the Eastern Caribbean, the smaller islands are being used as stepping stones towards the bigger markets of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands - both designated by the DEA as High Density Trafficking Areas. It is a shame that the residents of these drug infested neighborhoods have to suffer do drug smugglers taking full control. These surrounding neighborhoods have had to adapt to social change in the environments adaptions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/americas/25trinidad.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=recent%20crimes&st=cse
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