THE SHIPMENT of illegal drugs from Venezuela and other South American nations is presenting Caribbean law enforcement authorities with a major headache, the region's top police officials have revealed. Caribbean police chiefs and heads of other national security organisations held a conference here recently to discuss illegal drugs and the involvement of South American countries. The Drug Commanders conference, which also involved the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the U.S. Justice Department, heard that there is increasing evidence that Venezuela was fast becoming a major trans-shipment point for illegal drugs. In recent times most of the drug busts carried out in the waters of the Eastern Caribbean appear to involve Venezuelan vessels. Earlier this month St. Lucian Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony met with the resident Venezuelan ambassador for talks on ways to curb the illegal activity. This followed the arrests of several Venezuelan nationals in St Lucian waters for various drug offences. Head of the DEA Caribbean Division Jerome Harris said that in recent times the DEA has registered marked successes in dismantling the drug trade in Columbia, which have led to the drug dealers establishing command and control outposts in other South American territories like Venezuela and Brazil. He said drugs from these territories are now being moved more frequently through the Caribbean chain en route to the United Kingdom, the US and Africa. "We are seeing more and more maritime activity of boats, pleasure craft and freighters carrying multi-tonne shipments of cocaine through the Caribbean chain, some are stopping and off-loading some of their cargo while others are continuing on to Europe, Africa and the U.S. depending on the organisation doing the trafficking," Harris said. Reprinted from jamaica-gleaner.com