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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
How White Treasure hooks fishermen on cocaine catch [NCA]
    #5465021 - 03/31/06 06:11 PM (17 years, 9 months ago)

How White Treasure hooks fishermen on cocaine catch
April 1, 2006 - timesonline.co.uk

Parcels dumped by traffickers now dominate life in a coast stricken by poverty



IT IS not yet sunrise, but already the fishermen are busy at work. Like their fathers and grandfathers before them, they make their living from the sea. But the lobster and green turtle that sustained their communities have all but disappeared. Instead, they fish for cocaine.

?We believe that everything that comes from the sea or from the heaven is a gift from God,? Armando says with a knowing wink.

Balancing precariously on the edge of his boat, Armando scans the horizon, searching for white plastic packages that float on the sea.

A single 20kg (44lb) package of cocaine, dumped into the sea by traffickers intercepted by customs police on their way from Colombia to the US, could fetch up to $60,000 (?34,500) and change the lives of Armando and his crew of Miskito Indians for ever.

At the end of the day, the boats return to Cayos Miskitos, a cluster of huts supported by poles on a shallow sandbank in the middle of the sea, a day?s sailing from Nicaragua?s Atlantic coast. Small canoes with sails and a few plastic boats with outboard engines are tied to the huts. Beyond them there is nothing but the sea. Their nearest neighbours are at least one hour away.

For three weeks of every month Armando shares these fragile huts with 20 men. Every morning they sail and paddle further out to sea, diving for lobster but hopeful of catching something far more valuable. When night falls, they return with the day?s catch. ?We call it ?The White Treasure?,? he says.

Cayos Miskitos lies within striking distance of three smuggling routes favoured by cocaine traffickers. The value of cocaine consumed in the US is about $40 billion a year and it is estimated that more than $3 billion of cocaine is shipped through these routes.

Almost half of cocaine seizures in Central America take place in Nicaragua.

Traffickers being pursued by the local coastguard often dump their cocaine overboard before switching to powerful speedboats to escape. The white plastic bags float to the surface and drift towards the Nicaraguan coast, an irresistible catch for impoverished communities ignored by their Government for decades.

By sundown, several tired men stagger into the hut, with the day?s meagre catch in their hands. ?There is barely a lobster left in the sea,? Armando says. ?From the little money we earn we have to pay rent for the canoes and the equipment. There is almost nothing left for my family.

?The only thing keeping us from starvation and eating each other is the cocaine.?

The Miskitos recall how a small plane crashed in the jungle, with nearly a tonne of cocaine on board. The Indians helped the pilots to hide the cargo. Anti-narcotics police came searching but were captured by the Miskitos. The police were released after weeks of negotiations and promised to stay away from the area.

Most of the cocaine fished from the Atlantic is smuggled to Bluefields, the nearest coastal town, through a labyrinth of swampy rivers and mangrove forests. Many of its 30,000 residents, descendents of mutineers on a slave ship, make their living from the 300 or so crack houses that are scattered around this old colonial trading post.

In a wooden shack in Bluefields, Shotgun, 27, and Danny, 31, smoke a joint while making crack in a kettle. Shotgun?s new girlfriend, Rosa, waits for the crack-making to finish so that she can cook rice for her family. Customers stream in and out of the shack, laughing, smoking and buying crack.

In a prison cell in Bluefields, Juice is locked up with 25 other men. The cell is dark, it is more than 40C (104F) and the smell of sweat and urine is unbearable. Reggae music comes from a neighbouring cell. The men are serving time for violent crimes, drugs and robbery.

Juice found 60kg of cocaine, sold 30kg and got $3,000 per kilo. He wanted to sell more but got caught with 15kg taped to his body. So far he has spent two weeks in prison. ?I won?t be spending 17 years in prison,? he says with a smile. ?Come to my house this weekend. I?ll be out of this hole by then.

?In a situation like mine, I have to pay the lawyer $2,000, the state attorney $2,000 and the judge $3,000. I still got plenty cash left.

?When you steal, you have to steal for at least two people, yourself and your lawyer.?

Outside, Panther washes his new car. He is nervous. At the break of dawn a fishing boat is due at the lagoon with a large consignment of cocaine that will be taken, on horseback, through the tropical forest to customers. It is a risky business.

?Great brick mansions are popping up everywhere, both here in town and in the middle of the jungle,? Panther says. ?Everyone knows where the money comes from. My house come from the same money.

?Grandmothers hide cocaine in their backyard just as often as young men. Everyone is doing services for each other.

?But the police are the worst. They buy and sell themselves. They want the same things as us. They never turn up when there is fighting or house quarrels or violence. But mention cocaine and they?ll be there in two seconds.?


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