THE EXTORTION racket, with downtown businesses and higglers as the primary targets, has flourished to finance crime lords with millions in protection money. The 'protection', supposedly, is to ensure that the premises of the victims are not broken into or their employees threatened.
The racket has spread over time from downtown Kingston, uptown to the volatile sector of Red Hills Road where criminal violence has flared periodically. Mysterious fires destroying business premises in this area have been attributed to criminal elements punishing reluctant extortion victims.
In downtown Kingston some confidential sources estimate that hundreds of businesses and higglers pay thousands in cash weekly to the 'protectors'. They also have to fork out handouts for funerals and incidentals for friends and relations of the extortioners. The illicit earnings may amount to an improbable $400 million annually. This may be a wild guestimate partly because most of the victims are unwilling or fearful to discuss the matter.
Legitimate business cannot prosper in this environment. The national tax take is decimated by these payments and the accounting practices that they require. Political and public leadership is castrated in the face of the enormous criminal cash flow because what the extortion racket generates is additional to cash generated from other crime and drug trafficking.
The size of the cash flow means that there are criminals in Kingston with financial resources large enough to corrupt the political and law enforcement officials of the nation. No other industry in Jamaica would have discretionary income of $400 million.
The Government of the day and its security forces need to target the extortion racket. A plan to deal with it must be developed and implemented. It might be reasonable to assume that the Government itself has been badly touched by corruption or incompetence if no strong action is taken within 90 days.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
