Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite believes the introduction of unmanned surveillance drones would be a useful addition to the arsenal being used to fight the illegal drug trade in Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean.
With the United States Department of Homeland Security’s setting aside almost US$6 million to acquire a new sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to help spot fast-moving boats and semi-submersible submarines loaded with South American cocaine and heroin and with Caribbean marijuana bound for the United States, Brathwaite said anything that aids the region’s efforts to limit illegal trade in narcotics would be welcomed by Barbados.
“Any use in the Eastern Caribbean to provide us with information about the movement of illegal drugs in our part of the world would be useful for us. I would have no problem with the drones for that purpose,” Brathwaite told the DAILY NATION in New York.
Washington’s decision to introduce drone flights across the Caribbean has come after 18 months of tests over The Bahamas and it will amount to a dramatic increase in the use of surveillance aircraft over the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
