WESTERN BUREAU – Police Commissioner Francis Forbes has announced that the constabulary will be using jet skis in its continued drive to stamp out the increasing drug trade, especially in the resort areas and cruise ship harbours.

Speaking in the tourist resort city of Montego Bay, Forbes said the jet skis would be given to the police for them to patrol the beach and cruise ship terminus, going after drug pushers who target stop-over visitors and cruise ship passengers. Forbes said it had come to his attention that the drug pushers were using small boats and jet skis to gain access to the tourists frolicking on the beach, and at the cruise ship piers.

“We are going to try and get some jet skis and so on, for the police who can work the beaches behind hotels and when the cruise ships come in, because people in small boats and jet skis are peddling drugs that way,” the commissioner said.

Asked about the legality of the jets skis against reports that persons had been killed while operating them, the commissioner said there were regulations governing the licensing of jet skis in the island. “There are some regulations governing the jet skis and the licensing of them. It applies all around the coast, but they operate in tandem with the law.”

In the meantime, Forbes said the Jamaica Constabulary Force had mounted a campaign to have the monies seized from drug dealers used to purchase boats for the police to address the woeful shortage of crime-fighting equipment. “There is mention of the one little boat down here (St James), so we are trying to see if some of the monies seized from the drug dealers can go towards purchasing some boats,” he said.

The commissioner also announced that the Summit Police Station in Montego Bay, which was closed over two years ago, would be refurbished and reopened soon. Forbes said the reopening of that station would not only improve police operation, especially in the resort areas, but would also accommodate rank and file members of the force who lived outside the parish but travelled to Montego Bay for one reason or the another.

“We have been doing everything to get Summit refurbished, and I think we can safely say that that effort has finally paid off, because as far as I am aware, funds are now granted for the refurbishing,” Forbes said.

He was one of the persons who had opposed the move to have the Summit Police Station closed, and he expressed delight at its planned reopening.