Bahamas News

Shortly after 2:30 pm Friday two men apprehended in connection with the major firearms, cash and drug bust on Grand Bahama last month were hauled into magistrates’ court number eight to answer 28 charges related to the multi million dollar seizure.

After more than a week on the run, Larry Alexander McIntosh, 32, and Devin Gilroy Garland, 30, appeared before Magistrate Carolita Bethel for arraignment on the drugs and firearms charges.

No one was charged Friday with the seizure of $7 million in the June 17 operation.

The two accused pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to possess dangerous drugs – namely cocaine - with intent to supply; possession of dangerous drugs – namely cocaine – with intent to supply; conspiracy to possess dangerous drugs – namely marijuana – with intent to supply and possession of dangerous drugs – namely marijuana – with intent to supply.

A total of 104 packages of cocaine weighing 230 pounds with an estimated street value of $2 million, along with 73 pounds of marijuana were seized, according to police.

Court documents indicated that the offences all occurred between Wednesday June 6 and Sunday June 17.

The pair was also charged with 24 counts of possessing illegal forms.

Specifically, they were charged with four counts of unlawful possession of a .9 mm firearm; one count of possession of a .38 calibre handgun; one count of possession of a .45 calibre handgun; five counts of possession of a 7.62 calibre rifle; one count of possession of a .223 calibre rifle and two counts of unlawful possession of a 12 gauge shotgun.

Additionally, McIntosh and Garland were charged with unlawful possession of 174 7.62 calibre bullets; 18 .38 calibre bullets; 221 rounds of .223 ammunition; 552 rounds of .9 mm ammunition; 43 rounds of .38 calibre ammunition; 94 rounds of .38 calibre ammunition and possession of eight rounds of .40 calibre bullets.

The men were also charged with three counts of unlawfully possessing firearms silencers.

Just before being remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison, Garland’s attorney, Carlson Shurland, told Magistrate Bethel his client had a “genuine concern” about his personal well-being in prison.

Magistrate Bethel asked Mr. Shurland to specify whom his client was in fear of, but upon being told he could not identify a specific threat, she said she would be able only to ensure that the accused would receive a psychological evaluation upon admittance to the prison.

The men were ordered to return to court on July 9 for a bail and fixture hearing.

By Darrin Culmer
The Bahama Journal

Illegal drugs valued at an estimated three million dollars have been seized by drug enforcement officers on a sailboat anchored off the coast of a Family Island.

The seizure, which occurred on Friday night and marks the second major bust of its kind since last week’s seven million dollar find, was made after DEU officers intercepted a 42 ft sailboat in Eleuthera, according to press liaison officer ASP Walter Evans.

Evans said that after officers boarded the vessel, they found 226 kilos of cocaine in the boat’s cabin.

Two French Canadian men aged 61 and 57 were arrested in connection with the find. Their names were not released for publication but the ASP revealed that they will both appear in court as early as today.

He also said that the drug bust was a collaborative effort between Bahamian home security, Canada and The United States. He declined to release further information in order to maintain the integrity of ongoing investigations into the drug bust.

Last week $7 million dollars worth of contraband was seized by DEU. The Police were alerted to suspicious activities at a storage facility on Grand Bahama around 9 a.m. on June 17. Both men and women were reportedly seen in the area with firearms and bags containing the illegal drugs.

Officers were dispatched to the scene and conducted a search of the area, but no one was found. However, it was discovered that locks to a unit of the storage facility had been broken off, and a search of the building uncovered a number of bags containing money, drugs and weapons, which included six 7.62 rifles, four 9mm pistols, three shot guns and a .38 pistol.

During a press conference given by the police force to discuss the find, Police Commissioner Paul Farquharson commented that the seizure spoke volumes about the commitment and dedication of the Royal Bahamas Police Force to keeping the country safe. “However, it also speaks of the reality and dangers that police officers face on a daily basis; the reality of coming face-to-face with dangerous criminals armed with high-powered weapons that have no regard for life. One can only imagine the negative fall-out and bloodshed that could have resulted, had these weapons not been discovered,” Farquharson reported.

He said the law must have “more teeth” in it to deal with these major criminals in the interest of peace, safety and the national security of The Bahamas.

A week later police said that they had three men in custody, two appeared before magistrate Carolita Bethel the following week and were charged with 24 counts of illegal possession of firearms and four counts of conspiracy to possess a significant amount of cocaine and marijuana.

By Nadine Thomas-Brown
The Nassayu Guardian

In his first fight since suffering a knock out loss to Edgar Santa in December Meacher Major ‘Pain’ rebounded in a big way and at the same time ended his career in the lightweight division with a fifth round knockout victory over Iidilo Julio from Columbia on Saturday night at the CI Gibson Gymnasium.

Julio did not answer the bell to start the fifth round. He was already behind in the fight when he suffered an accidental head but to the upper lip midway through the fourth round. After a brief moment to catch himself Julio and Major tapped gloves and finished the fourth round.

However, between rounds Julio’s upper lip immediately began to swell and bleed. He and his trainer along decided not to risk further injury.

Major had the height and reach advantage over Julio who is a veteran fighter coming in with a 39-11 professional record.

Major’s fans in New Providence were used to seeing him knock out opponents relatively early, but Julio proved to be elusive, gutsy and able to take a punch.

Major was on the attack and won the first round. The second round Julio was moving forward and Major took advantage of several openings with a barrage of punches landing about four solid blows to the head, but to the crowds surprise Julio did not go down and survived the round.

In the third round both fighters stood toe to toe and they each landed good shots. The true boxing fans were pleasantly surprised to see Major in a tough fight on home soil for the first time in a long time; but what was turning out to be a great feature fight was cut short by the injury.

After the win, flanked by supporters, Major said “I went in the ring to put in some work tonight and that is what I did. I didn’t guarantee a knock out was prepared to go the distance, but I heard him breathing hard in the third round and coach ray Minus Jr. told me to take my time but keep the pressure on him but that is what I did. I know he was more of a brawler, so I remained patient and boxed instead of looking for the knock out.”

There had been reports in the media that Major and trainer Minus were not seeing eye to eye, so it was a surprise to see Minus in Major’s corner on Saturday.

“Ray Minus Jr. and I never had any falling out, he just understands the situation and why I made the decision that I did to train in Florida instead of signing a contract with First Class Promotions, tonight I asked him to give me some help in my corner and he agreed, so there is no love lost,” he said.

“It feels good to have had him in my corner tonight, you know he has been there for me from the start and like I told the people I will never go against him for anybody,” he added.

Major, the Bahamas and WBA Caribbean lightweight and feather weight champion will now focus on climbing the international ranking in search of a World title shot in the featherweight division.

He says he plans to defend his WBA featherweight title in later this year, but he doesn’t know who his opponent will be. After his fight with an elusive Julio, Major says he will have to work on his reflexes.

In a surprise heavyweight match-up, Bernard Rolle and Jerry ‘Big Daddy’ Butler squared off in the ring.

After losing 40 pound over the past year, a slimmer better conditioned Butler easily out classed Rolle and landed some vicious right-left combinations late in the first round.

Already exhausted Rolle seemed to be suffering from the humid atmosphere, in the CI Gibson Gym that does not have an airconditioning unit.

Butler said, “I know Bernard and the type of fighter he is. He is a good puncher, but if he doesn’t get you in trouble early, he fades, so I just left him punch himself out early in the round and when I saw my opening I started to put some blows on him.”

Rolle who was scheduled to fight Jimmy Suarez from Puerto did not answer the bell for the second round.

His fight against Suarez was suppose to be used to get his feet wet in the ring again after taking a few years off to concentrate on his career in the Tourism industry, but Suarez failed to show and promoters asked Butler who was at the fight as a spectator if he would “lace em up.”

Interviewed weeks before his supposed fight with Suarez Rolle said he has his eyes set on The Bahamas heavyweight title. However, he knew he would have to go through former disputed champion Reynaldo Minus and the up and coming Jerry ‘Big Daddy’ Butler if he wanted to win the title.

After the win Butler said, “Before tonight’s fight I told the promoters of this show, that my last fight a week ago, I hardly got any work and that if they needed me on the card to let my promoters and my trainers know.”

“Tonight I just came to watch the fight,” he said. “And my trainer came to me and asked me if I wanted to fight tonight. We talked about it and in the end we decided to improve the record by getting another win. So I drove home for my gear and got back here in time for the fight,” said Butler.

The Butler versus Rolle fight would have been the co-main event under normal circumstances. The scheduled co-main event featured a lightweight rematch between Richard ‘Hammer’ Pitt and Dencil ‘Death’ Miller. Pitt won the six round bout by decision.

Fighting on the under card Alphachino Allen defeated Ramon Sanchez from Puerto Rico by first round knock out in their four round welterweight contest.

Ricardo ‘One Shot’ Bethel got a four round decision over Anthony Drummett. Fans disagreed with the judge’s decision. By Drummette was deducted one point during the fight for holding and it may have caused him the win.

For promoter Terry Demeritte and Paradon Productions it was her first show in over a decade. In the end she said although there were some challenges, she is pleased with the outcome of the show, the high level of competition and fan support.

“I think it was fantastic my first show, I am encouraged to do the right thing to put on more shows,” said Demeritte. “There were many rough edges, up until 6pm tonight we were still at the airport and people still haven’t shown up; Nevertheless things went off very well, the crowd was enthusiastic and the fighters gave a fantastic show and we hope to host another one in September,” she said.

Michelle Minus, The Bahamas leading boxing promoter and The WBC/WBA undisputed Caribbean Champion Jermaine ‘Chu Chu’ Mackey sat ringside in support of Paradon Productions, Major and the other local fighters.

By Gerrino Saunders
The Bahama Journal

The Bahamas and other offshore financial centers like it in the region may be able to breathe a little easier after CARICOM has received an “assurance” that the Stop Tax Havens Abuse Bill will likely not bear fruit.

It was one of the issues that Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community discussed with members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Ways and Means Committee on a recent trek to Capitol Hill.

The bill, which was introduced by Senators Carl Levine, Norm Coleman and Barack Obama, came against the backdrop that there is an estimated $345 billion in unpaid taxes each year in the US owed by individuals, corporations, and other organizations. According to the latest estimate out of that $345 billion, offshore tax haven abuses account for as much as $100 billion.

But some Caribbean leaders and members of the financial services sector maintain that the bill unfairly targets the region and could mean disaster for the offshore financial services sector.

Financial services is the number two industry for The Bahamas, which is named in the bill as a target along with 33 other jurisdictions.

“We were given the assurance that the bill that is currently written, the experts have all agreed that it is inadequate for what is required and that the positions in relation to the Caribbean which are deleterious to the Caribbean interest would not, in their judgment, see the light of day,” CARICOM Chairman Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said after the meeting with US Congressmen.

“That is something which is very positive that has emerged. We have many friends on this committee who understand our position and who are prepared to work with us to carry forward a Caribbean agenda.”

He also made the point that the onslaught against tax havens has not come from the regime of US President George Bush.

Nonetheless, there continues to be a vigorous effort on the part of some in the Congress to stop the hemorrhage of unpaid taxes.

Senator Levine declared that offshore tax haven and tax shelter abuses are undermining the integrity of the US tax system and are shifting the tax burden from high income persons and companies onto the backs of middle income America.

He classified a tax haven as a foreign jurisdiction that maintains corporate, bank, and tax secrecy laws and industry practices that make it very difficult for other countries to find out whether their citizens are using the tax haven to cheat on their taxes.

“In effect, tax havens sell secrecy to attract clients to their shores,” he said.

“They peddle secrecy the way other countries advertise high quality services. That secrecy is used to cloak tax evasion and other misconduct, and it is that offshore secrecy that is targeted in our bill.”

The proposed law contains provisions that would authorize special measures against foreign jurisdictions, financial institutions and others that impeded US tax enforcement; increase disclosure of offshore accounts, transactions and entities and increase penalties for US interests failing to reveal offshore holdings.

Currently, the US Treasury has the authority under the Patriot Act to impose financial sanctions on foreign jurisdictions, financial institutions, or transactions found to be of “primary money laundering concern.”

The proposed Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act would authorize the Treasury to impose the same sanctions on the same types of entities if it finds them to be “impeding U.S. tax enforcement.” In addition, the bill would add to the list of possible sanctions the ability to deny foreign banks the authority to issue credit cards for use in the US.

The Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis Denzil Douglas who was also a part of the meetings on Capitol Hill said he was assured that the bill that was introduced was not intended to hurt countries in the Caribbean region.

While the ongoing debate rages there are efforts underway to entice jurisdictions away from being tax havens. For instance the Global Tax Justice Network, an international non-profit organization dedicated to fighting tax evasion, is lobbying for these nations to be given financial assistance in that regard.

The network’s co-ordinator, John Christensen said the tax haven system only helps a select few rich people while poor people pay more tax.

“Our network is pushing also for the smaller islands that need funds to adjust away from being tax havens to be given compensation so that they can develop new development strategies,” he said, “but I think they now need to re-think what they’re doing.”

Congressman Levine noted that for many years, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has been looking at the problem of offshore corporate, bank, and tax secrecy laws and practices that help taxpayers dodge their U.S. tax obligations by preventing U.S. tax authorities from gaining access to key financial and beneficial ownership information.

The Tax Justice Network, recently estimated that wealthy individuals worldwide have stashed $11.5 trillion of their assets in offshore tax havens.

The Bahamas financial sector contributes over 20% to GDP, with annual expenditures in the local economy of the banking sector alone exceeding $400 million, assets exceeding $350 billion, and with sizeable assets under management.

By Tameka Lundy
The Bahama Journal

The Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and former Director General of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism Vincent Vanderpool Wallace has renewed an appeal for the region’s brightest professionals to enter the tourism industry.

He told a group of human resource professionals attending a conference in Guadeloupe this week that tourism is not the industry of choice for the Caribbean’s best minds.

“We have a natural advantage in the area of tourism. Tourism chose us, we didn’t choose tourism,” said Mr. Vanderpool Wallace at the Tourism Human Resources Conference this week.

“The world told us ‘you guys are very good at tourism,’ let’s listen to it and begin to do those things that are very important for us to get better.

“If this is the most important part of our industry we have to get the best people we have involved in the industry. We have to identify them, select them, recruit them, then train them in addition to the people who are already here.”

The CTO secretary general pointed out that the region is facing mounting competition from other tourism destinations and “the best of our citizens” must be involved globally in order to successfully face this competition.

More than 75 delegates from across the region are participating in the three-day conference, organised by the CTO in collaboration with the Guadeloupe Tourist Board, the Guadeloupe Hospitality Institute and the Regional Council of Guadeloupe.

The human resource professionals also heard from a lecturer in management studies at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies in Barbados that the movement of labour particularly immigration labour from China and Malaysia poses a challenge for Caribbean employers.

Akhentoolove Corbin said the tourism, hospitality and services sector should be particularly mindful of the different practices introduced by the Chinese workers.

“For example, the Chinese have a method of work communities that when they come it is a community of work and in terms of working hours it is not a work day, it is work…so when you have a community where you are not distracted by other social factors, that in itself provides a significant change in work pattern,” he said.

Mr. Corbin was addressing the matter of Changing Patterns in the World of Work and their Relevance to the Caribbean Region. He said human resource managers had to address a number of other key issues regarding conditions of work as they relate to Chinese labour and the impact on tourism and services.

“How they are paid? What benefits do they have? Do they have health service benefits? Are there occupational health and safety standards? Who monitors these things?” he asked adding “And they are directly competing with Caribbean labour.”

The university lecturer told the delegates that productivity and performance were also worrying factors.

The Bahamas is set to ratify the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) Sustainable Tourism Convention, and Chairman of the ACS Special Committee on Sustained Tourism, Bahamas Tourism Minister Neko Grant, has urged other regional leaders to follow suit.

Speaking at the ACS sustainable tourism committee meeting in Trinidad on Thursday, Mr. Grant referred to the convention as the result of a desire of the 25 member-nations of the ACS to “put in place guidelines to assist in protecting and preserving the ecological, social, cultural and economic development to improve the quality of life for nationals.”

“The signing of this convention was historic as no other regional body globally had ever unanimously agreed and formally signed a commitment to protect the interests of its natural, economic and socio-cultural resources by establishing a sustainable tourism zone,” Mr. Grant said.

“This agreement crossed cultural, language and political barriers in the interest of sustainability.”

The minister noted that tourism “is also the industry with the greatest potential to destroy the same resources it relies on for economic growth.”

According to Mr. Grant, signing the Convention establishing the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Greater Caribbean is only the first step – the convention must now be ratified.

“I am therefore pleased to report that The Commonwealth of The Bahamas has recently agreed to ratify the Convention establishing the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Greater Caribbean,” he said.

“I wish to appeal to member states and associate members who have not yet done so to ratify the convention as expeditiously as possible and also to sign the protocol to bring into force the convention at the earliest possible date.”

Mr. Grant also touted the establishment of a regional tourism safety and security network in the Caribbean region.

“No region or destination within a region can sustain a vibrant tourism industry in the face of rising crime,” Mr. Grant told the meeting in Trinidad. “As a matter of fact, research has shown that visitors consider the safety of a destination as a major priority when selecting their vacation destination.”

“Visitor safety is as important to the success of the tourism industry as professional hospitality, diverse attractions and a pristine environment.”

Mr. Grant commended the ACS for identifying the issue of visitor safety as a priority and for establishing the safety and security network “to deal effectively with this scourge.”

Mr. Grant said that going forward, he envisioned that regional visitor safety cooperation, the further development of sustainable cruise tourism and the reinvestment of earnings in initiatives that support the preservation of the biodiversity of the Greater Caribbean will be critical to the region’s success.

“Coupled, of course, with strategies to raise the level of national appreciation by our individual countries of the importance of the tourism industry through the development of Tourism Satellite Accounts – a critical tool to inform policy on how tourism impacts job creation, employment, government revenue and other relevant economic factors,” he said.

The Director of Sustainable Tourism of the ACS, Jasmin Garraway, who addressed the meeting on b ehalf of the secretary general expressed her satisfaction at the news of the impending ratification of the Tourism Convention by The Bahamas. She also congratulated the Minister both the decisive step and on his new role as Chairman of the Special Committee on Tourism.

The Bahamas was elected Chairman of the Special Committee on Sustainable Tourism at the 12th Ordinary Meeting of the Ministerial Council Meeting in Guatemala, after having served as Vice Chairman of that Committee for 2 consecutive years.

By Quincy Parker
The Bahama Journal