Old Caribbean route regains popularity with drug gangs

(Jamaica Gleaner) A United States (US) official says an old Caribbean route is regaining popularity with drug gangs from Central and South America.

Senior US anti-drugs official, William Brownfield, said 16 per cent of cocaine imports into the US came through the Caribbean islands last year.

Until recently, the favoured northbound route for cocaine from South America – principally via Venezuela after Colombia’s interdiction efforts in the 1990s – was by small aircraft to Honduras.

The Economist news magazine said planes fly a dogleg path – first north, then west – to avoid Colombian airspace; the drugs then move by land or other means via Central America and Mexico.