Eleven years following the disappearance of illegal drugs seized by Defence Force Officers, the government has retained the services of a former Supreme Court Justice to conduct hearings in an attempt to put the controversial issue to rest.
During his contribution to the budget debate Thursday, Attorney General Alfred Sears noted that there has been controversy over the past year concerning the mysterious disappearance of the drugs confiscated on the high seas.
It was June, 1992 under the first Progressive Liberal Party’s administration when Defence Force officers arrested the crew of the vessel, ‘Laura Quin’ for alleged drug trafficking. But by the time the boat docked at the Defence Force Base in Coral Harbour, some of the drugs were reportedly gone.
For the past 11 years, the drug seizure has been veiled with accusations of improprieties on the part of the defence and police force officers. And according to Minister Sears, allegations remain in the public domain that the investigations were inadequate.
Late last year, United States Ambassador to The Bahamas J. Richard Blankenship raised the issue at a special meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, calling into question the integrity of some Bahamian law enforcement officers.
On Thursday, Minister Sears said his government is determined to finally get to the crux of the matter which he said is believed to have been deliberately mishandled due to political or institutional motives.
“There are young Bahamian men and women in the police and defence forces who must walk throughout the community with a cloud hanging over them,” he said. “There are members of the Defence Force who are denied visas to the United States. This is untenable.
“We can not allow our principle security institutions to exist with this cloud and young Bahamians to have their careers and their future tarnished by these allegations.”
According to the attorney general, the allegations have the potential to erode the respect that foreign law enforcement agencies have for local agencies with which they must cooperate.
Meantime, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Cynthia Pratt told The Bahama Journal that the upcoming hearings indicate that the Progressive Liberal Party will be transparent in addressing the drug allegations.
“I have been agitating for it to come to an end because there are too many of our decent men and women on these forces who have been working honestly, diligently and with integrity with matters that continue to come up when they weren’t even part of the force,” Minister Pratt said. “I thank God this will eventually come to rest.
“It says that we are concerned about whatever reputation…if you’re going to tarnish our reputation, we want to clean it up. We want to make certain that this is a new PLP. We have nothing to hide and whatever is wrong, we’re going to clean it up.”
The sole Commissioner to investigate the matters to begin within a matter of weeks, is retired Supreme Court Justice Stanley Moore. The government said through the hearings, the public will finally be provided with a report beyond controversy, regarding the missing drugs.
By Hadassah Hall, The Bahama Journal
