The Government, as part of its frontal assault on drug traffickers and money launderers, intends to fast-track legislation that will require persons suspected of involvement in crime to justify their assets, a senior official of the national security ministry announced yesterday.
“If you own certain forms of assets, the onus will be on you to prove how you acquired this stuff,” Woodrow Smith, director of security and narcotics at the ministry told a National Drug Abuse Prevention conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre.
“They have started to work on it, and it is hoped that it will come in at the pace that the ministry wants; the second half of next year. It’s being worked on at a fast pace,” Smith said.
The proposed legislation, which is being primarily patterned off a Proceeds of Crime Act introduced in the United Kingdom within the last 18 months, is intended to put under the microscope persons who are suspected to have gained from major crimes and are enjoying ostentatious lifestyles, but whose sources of income cannot be pinpointed.
He said that under the legislation being discussed, the burden of proof would be shifted from the state to the persons under suspicion.
The legislation will target persons suspected of involvement in crimes, including drug trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking, illegal immigration and extortion.
“The minister of national security, Peter Phillips, keeps talking about criminality and its links to drugs; that is, that other major crimes are fuelled by drug trafficking. So it has become necessary for him to look at other forms of punishment,” Smith told the Observer after his presentation. Under the Transnational Organised Crime Convention which was adapted by the United Nations (UN) in December 2000, countries are required to strengthen existing legislation in certain areas including assets forfeiture, money laundering and interception of communication.
The 1988 UN Convention Against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of which Jamaica is a signatory, requires the enactment of legislation that now allows the confiscation by the state of the proceeds and instrumentalities of drug crimes.
It also requires countries to criminalise money laundering, enter mutual legal assistance treaties with other countries, extradite drug traffickers, control the diversion of chemical precursors and control illicit traffic by sea, which facilitated the Ship Rider Agreement, a pact between the United States and some Caribbean countries that allows for co-operation in the interception of vessels suspected of transporting drugs in Caribbean waters.
In addition, the convention requires the sharing of confiscated assets among states.
Earlier this year, under the Sharing of Forfeited Assets Act, Jamaica and Canada split J$9.2 million confiscated from a Jamaican man who was convicted in Canada and is serving a sentence.
Jamaica’s portion of the money was used for law enforcement activities and drug demand reduction activities.
Smith told the conference that the National Drug Abuse Council received $500,000, while Addiction Alert got $150,000 from Jamaica ‘s share.
