Police have been asked to look into a guns and drugs smuggling ring allegedly operated by Defence Force officers.
Former Defence Force Commodore Clifford Scavella once admitted that there were hundreds of corrupt Bahamas Defence Force officers. In 2007, Scavella told a reporter from the Nassau Guardian that there were at least 250 corrupt officers and that he was going to remove them “as soon as possible”.
Well, he never did. Many believe that Scavella himself was not above suspicion.
Now, there are many more corrupt officers and the situation is only getting worse.
In fact, Defence Force officers are believed to be the ones behind much of the guns and drugs trade that you will find on the streets of The Bahamas.
The situation is so bad that current Commodore Roderick Bowe has asked the police force to investigate the theft of guns and drugs that Defence Force officers stole from a go-fast boat in Nassau harbour earlier this week.
Apparently, four BDF marines held up the crew of a 40-foot go-fast boat in Nassau harbour, stealing 20 kilos of cocaine and 50 handguns from the crew of four hapless smugglers, believed to be two Bahamians and two Jamaicans.
The go-fast crew, of course, refuses to cooperate with the police in the investigaton as they do not want to incriminate themselves.
Commodore Bowe was going to have the Defence Force investigate the robbery internally, but he realised that corruption on the force is too deep. Most Defence Force officers subscribe to an almost mafia-like code of silence, making an internal investigation fruitless.
The police have already hit the Defence Force’s “wall of silence” but Minister Tommy Turnquest, who aproved the police intervention, is still hoping to get to the bottom of the situation.
