( l - r ) Blair, Lee
While the Hellshire Beach in St Catherine is hugely popular with patrons for its fried fish and festival, it has gained much notoriety with the police and has been tagged a major hot spot for drug and gunrunning.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Clive Blair, operations officer for the St Catherine South Division, described the Hellshire Beach as the epicentre of the drugs-for-guns trade in the parish.
He said that the beach has also come up on the radar of the Jamaica Constabulary Force's narcotics branch, as well as its intelligence-driven unit known as Kingfish. Both units have carried out operations on the beach geared towards dismantling the illicit trade.
DSP Blair told The Gleaner that since he joined the division in 2007, his team has also carried out several covert operations there which have resulted in a number of persons being charged.
The senior cop, who noted that operations were also carried out at the beach before he joined the St Catherine team two years ago, said his camp is keeping a watchful eye on the area as he is determined to break the illegal trade.
"It is a major trans-shipment point ... that is an area of concern (for) us," said DSP Blair.
Patrick Watson, the Social Development Commission's parish manager responsible for the Portmore office, told The Gleaner that as his agency carries out its mandate for community development, it has been observed that the nation's beaches are increasingly under threat by informal settlement and illegal activities.
In a written response, Lorna Clarke, who is attached to the corporate relations and marketing department at the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), the government agency that owns the Hellshire Beach, said: "the UDC is aware of claims that the beach is being used for illegal activities and has directed these claims to the authority with responsibility for enforcing law and order."
According to the police, the beach, officially known as the Hellshire Half Moon Bay Beach, has been unofficially divided into three sections:
The commercial side - where people go to swim and buy fish and festival;
The little strip - where people park cars on the side of the street and go for a swim instead of going to the commercial area where the crowds flock; and
Old Hellshire Beach - an area that can be accessed by small vehicles and is mostly used for fishing.
DSP Blair pointed out that operations have been carried out on all three unofficial segments of the Hellshire Beach, as the illicit trade, which is ostensibly carried out late at nights or in the wee hours of the morning, is not confined to any one area.
Keith Hinds, the mayor of Portmore - the municipality of which Hellshire is a part, told the Gleaner team that he understands the beach is being used as a base for trans-shipment from Haiti to Jamaica. The mayor said the drugs-for-guns trade on the beach is an open secret. "The police know it. Everybody in Portmore knows it. Anybody who tells you that they don't know it, they would be properly lying," he said.
Hinds added: "It is a great concern to me. It has been one of my greatest concerns because I believe the Hellshire Beach is one of the most valuable beach properties on this side of the island."
George Lee, Portmore's first mayor, who after serving a four-year term was not returned to office by voters in the December 2007 local government elections, admitted that the illicit trade was taking place while he was in office. "It is something that has been going on for quite some time and certainly during my time as mayor," he said.
The current head of the Portmore municipality, Mayor Hinds, said that it will take political will to bring an end to the illicit trade. "What seems to have been the problem, all this time, is a political will to deal with the matter, and I am telling you that I can lead and I have that political will and I am going to deal with it," the mayor declared.
tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com
