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The guns-for-drugs trade between Jamaica and Haiti is considered big business along the island's south coast. Many of the players are local fishermen. It takes J$150,000 worth of petrol to make the journey.

The POLICE ARE overlooking some major clues in their efforts to crack the guns-for-drugs trade between Jamaica and Haiti, an insider tells The Sunday Gleaner.

Chief among the clues is the quantity of gasolene being purchased at various service stations to fuel the trade.

Significantly, more gasolene is purchased when boats are to leave for Haiti with drugs, says an informant.

Days before boats leave major fishing beaches with ganja for Haiti, the insider says a large amount of gas is purchased and taken to the beach in pickup trucks.

Police clueless

"Sometimes, you think that it would not be hard to track, but the police don't seem to pick up these clues," the insider says. "It's a sign that cannot be missed."

It costs approximately J$150,000 to fuel a boat that takes ganja to Haiti, returning with guns and cash from that impoverished island. Fishermen making the run have to be prepared for a 14-day stay, which spans sea and the Haitian mainland.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding said in Parliament last week that the establishment of Haitian communities in the south of the island has made the illicit trade easier.

He noted that Jamaicans leave with ganja and return with money, guns and sometimes Haitians, who start families here.

Continue to flourish

The Sunday Gleaner understands that many Haitians who come to Jamaica from the French-speaking island are fluent in the Jamaican dialect, having been exposed to it in Haiti.

Despite the prevalence of several marine police vessels and three high-speed Jamaica Defence Force boats on the seas, the guns-for-drugs trade between Jamaica and Haiti continues to flourish.

'Gun fishers' leave regularly from ports in Bryan's Bay and Man-chioneal in Portland, Rocky Point in Clarendon, Rocky Point in St Thomas, Great Pedro Buff and Alligator Pond in St Elizabeth, the Hellshire and Old Harbour Bayin St Catherine.