Author Description

This study examines the threats of drug trafficking to Jamaica's national security and democratic stability. It focuses on the need for the Jamaica Defence Force Military Intelligence Unit to enhance its effectiveness as part of a national holistic counterdrug approach to project long term feasible and sustainable counterdrug measures. The study examines two countries' counterdrug approach that serves to enhance the effectiveness of their respective counterdrug law enforcement agencies--the United Kingdom, an economically prosperous country with a strong counterdrug link and partner of Jamaica; and Trinidad and Tobago, a neighboring nation state that is similar to Jamaica in terms of geography, history, culture, land mass, and population size. The United Kingdom and Trinidad and Tobago, affected adversely by drug trafficking, have adopted several counterdrug measures. These countries' primary counterdrug law enforcement agencies have implement measures that are coordinated, collaborative, holistic, and that are supported nationally and internationally at the highest levels, to include the political framework and the judiciary, in ways that enhance the effectiveness of their counterdrug agencies. Jamaica's premier counterdrug intelligence agency, the defense force's intelligence unit, should adopt, within its means, a blend of the ways identified in the approaches examined in order to enhance its counterdrug effectiveness.