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This article was published on InSight Crime on May 12, To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Caribbean countries have seized record amounts of cocaine in recent months, but the roots of the region's persistence as a key corridor for the drug stretch back half a century. Below, InSight Crime examines the legacies of some of the most influential Caribbean kingpins who helped to shape the region's current drug trade dynamics. In the s, Colombian traffickers moved an estimated 15 tons of cocaine per day from South America to the United States. Understanding the value of their strategic location between the two continents, Caribbean criminals stepped in to assist in transporting the drug, building fame and fortune. The Cuban-American duo established Miami as the capital of the global cocaine trade, generating massive wealth and criminality. After their arrest, multiple potential witnesses were killed and jurors bribed, but both traffickers eventually ended up in prison in the United States. Today, cocaine seizures in Florida and the Bahamas -- the starting point for many of the duo's voyages -- suggest the route no longer has the importance it once did for cocaine moving from South America to the US market. However, Florida and the Bahamas remain crucial hubs for lucrative organized criminal economies such as arms trafficking , money laundering , and human smuggling. For years, Charles Miller held a tight grip on the small island of St. Kitts, using his influence and violence to traffic drugs with impunity. His reign was emblematic of the massive impact that cocaine influx can have on small Eastern Caribbean nations. In the s, he masterminded the movement of tons of Colombian cocaine into the United States through Miami using the cargo airline Amerijet. US authorities made an extradition request for Miller in , but magistrates twice blocked the request. In , Miller threatened to kill US students at St. Kitts' Ross University if he was extradited. In , Miller was eventually extradited to the US and sentenced to life in prison. Today, St. Kitts and Nevis and the eastern Caribbean play a smaller role in the transnational drug trade. Still, levels of violence mirroring those of the Charles Miller era continue to define the region. Four of the five most violent countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in were island nations, with leaders blaming a flow of American-made guns for contributing to the brutality. Nankissoon Boodram, alias 'Dole Chadee,' was the pioneer of Trinidad and Tobago's cocaine highway from Colombia, utilizing violence and connections with high-level Trinidadian authorities to build a criminal empire. While the amount of cocaine trafficked by Boodram remains unclear, his influence within Trinidad and Tobago was formidable. A report into the country's drug landscape connected Boodram with state authorities as high up as the then-chief of police. Ultimately, it wasn't Boodram's drug trafficking crimes that finished him; he was sentenced to death and executed in Trinidad for murder in Today, seizures suggest that Trinidad and Tobago plays a small role in the transnational movement of cocaine. Authorities seized just 5 kilograms of cocaine in the first nine months of , according to a US State Department report. However, due to its location just off the coast of Venezuela -- where the cocaine trade has essentially become state-sanctioned -- and its poor drug interdiction capacity, its role could be much more significant. A string of crackdowns by US law enforcement through the s and s caused the Caribbean cocaine route to largely dry up. But a group of determined criminals was able to evolve. During this period, some grew beyond their role as subcontractors to become outright traffickers, buying cocaine from Colombian and Venezuelan groups to sell directly in the United States. The ability to make such connections remains a crucial feature of successful Caribbean traffickers. Figueroa started as a low-level retail drug seller in Puerto Rico but joined the ranks of established drug traffickers in the early s. He was jailed in for years for murder but escaped in Between and , the organization led by Figueroa and others trafficked and distributed over 10 metric tons of cocaine and heroin. He was arrested again and given a year sentence for drug trafficking charges. Figueroa was released in after serving 10 years at a correctional facility in the US state of Indiana. As US law enforcement continued their Caribbean crackdown, Christopher Coke, alias 'Dudus,' emerged as Jamaica's most prominent trafficker. Dudus took control of the infamous Shower Posse gang from his father in the early s and proceeded to utilize its international network to traffic tons of cocaine and marijuana to the US and Canada. Coke's leadership style was more discrete than that of his father, at least internationally. Jamaican gangs were implicated in 1, murders in the US between and , according to US authorities. Under Dudus, however, the Shower Posse committed much less violence, as he sought to avoid provoking US law enforcement authorities. However, he was ultimately unsuccessful. In May , US authorities sought his extradition from Jamaica. A battle between his supporters and security forces ensued, and at least 73 people were killed. He was extradited later that year. No drug lord of comparable power has since emerged to replace Coke. Rather than large hierarchical organizations, Jamaica's drug trafficking landscape is now run by smaller gang cells. Incessant gang fighting has seen the island's homicide rate rise. In and , Jamaica had the highest homicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean. While Jamaica continues to see large shipments of cocaine reach its shores, none of Jamaica's present-day groups rival the international reach once enjoyed by Coke's Shower Posse. Rising cocaine demand in Europe led to a resurgence in the importance of the Caribbean cocaine route, as underlined by recent large seizures. Traffickers in countries including the Dominican Republic and islands in the Dutch Caribbean have created wide-reaching criminal networks to cater to the European demand for cocaine. He gradually grew in power as his peers were arrested. He used legitimate businesses like nightclubs to launder drug proceeds and gain access to the Dominican Republic's business and political elites. Medina is also the godfather of one of the children of Peralta's sister-in-law, Berlinesa Franco. He fled to Colombia where he was arrested and extradited to Puerto Rico. In November , he pleaded guilty to trafficking multiple tons of cocaine into the United States. Quant led the NLS' beginning in the cocaine trade, organizing the smuggling of small quantities on flights from the Caribbean to Europe in the early s. Quant was arrested in Dubai in November , where he remains under house arrest. Leave a comment. Share this post. Copy link. Discussion about this post Comments. Ready for more? Start Writing Get the app. Substack is the home for great culture. This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts.

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Puerto Rico buying blow

Puerto Rico is seeing a surge in cocaine seizures, indicating that drug flows are being reactivated after months of dormancy amid pandemic lockdowns and that the island is on track to tally a record drug haul in According to Puerto Rican authorities, the total amount of cocaine seized was up by nearly half year-on-year through March and 64 percent through mid-April. This compares to The island offers strategic value for traffickers moving drugs to the United States due to its status as a US territory. Once the drug shipments enter Puerto Rico, they are more easily transported to the continental United States, as Puerto Ricans can transit freely and do not have to go through customs controls. Puerto Rican authorities believe that the spike in cocaine transiting the island is due to the months of restrictions on transit amid the pandemic, the testing of new trafficking routes and the backlog of accumulated drugs. The shipments are mostly sent by speedboats and fishing vessels from Colombia and Venezuela. These boats usually make a stop in the Dominican Republic, where the drugs are collected by criminal networks who then move them to other destinations, including Puerto Rico. However, in its latest report, the DEA warned of a new speedboat route directly connecting Venezuela to Puerto Rico and bypassing the Dominican Republic. This route could be behind the increasingly large shipments found in the US territory. Investigations conducted by InSight Crime in the Caribbean indicate that a number of criminal networks in Puerto Rico provide logistical services for international traffickers, especially Dominican groups. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a weekly digest of the latest organized crime news and stay up-to-date on major events, trends, and criminal dynamics from across the region. Donate today to empower research and analysis about organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, from the ground up. Skip to content. InSight Crime Analysis Puerto Rican authorities believe that the spike in cocaine transiting the island is due to the months of restrictions on transit amid the pandemic, the testing of new trafficking routes and the backlog of accumulated drugs. Stay Informed With InSight Crime Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a weekly digest of the latest organized crime news and stay up-to-date on major events, trends, and criminal dynamics from across the region.

Puerto Rico buying blow