by TONY BEST

DRUG MULES are turning up in key "transportation positions" in Barbados and finding new ways to smuggle cocaine, the United States State Department has revealed.

This comes as more drugs flow into Barbados and the number of arrests fall.

The United States State Department informed United States lawmakers on Capitol Hill that not only was Barbados a "transit country for cocaine and marijuana", but more and more drugs had flowed into the nation in the past three years.

"There has been a general increase in drug trafficking transiting Barbados since 2004," said the State Department in the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 2008, released over the weekend.

"A noticeable trend encountered in 2007 was the use of [some] employees working in commercial transportation position . . . ."

Washington also complained that traffickers were resorting to a new method to get drugs in or out of the island: they were soaking cocaine "into clothing to avoid detection", a move the State Department described as an "emerging trend".

Marijuana use

The report explained that while the marijuana that entered Barbados was used locally, domestic consumption of cocaine had accounted for only five per cent of the amount imported. The remaining 95 per cent went elsewhere.

Interestingly, ecstasy, a drug of choice of many middle-class Americans, was now part of Barbados' drug culture. However, no seizures of the illegal tablets were made in the country since 2005 when 2 445 of them were confiscated.

According to the State Department:

The number of people arrested on drug charges plummeted in 2007 when only 242 peoople faced the courts, a two-thirds decline from 2006.

Four major drug traffickers were arrested last year.

Law enforcement authorities destroyed 7 194 cannabis plants last year, almost triple the number of the previous year.

A bright spot was the work of Government's National Council on Substance Abuse and the various non-governmental organisations, such as the National Committee for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency during the year. Not only were they active but they were "effective" as well, stated the report.