Jan van der Straten … Same Drug Song Different Island … Aruba … Bonaire, etc

  He says that he has sufficient indications that the island is becoming an alternative for the import and export of drugs. He didn’t want to say what the alternatives are, because he didn’t want to help the underworld to get more ideas.   “But I observe that there are a lot of drugs on the island.”   (Jan van der Straten)

Amigoe: (9/11/06) Chief of police, Jan van der Straten, Bonaire pleads for point of support coastguard

BONAIRE — Chief of police in Bonaire, Jan van der Straten, pleads for a point of support of the coastguard in Bonaire, same as the case in Curacao, Aruba, and St. Maarten.   He says that he has sufficient indications that the island is becoming an alternative for the import and export of drugs.

  

He didn’t want to say what the alternatives are, because he didn’t want to help the underworld to get more ideas.   “But I observe that there are a lot of drugs on the island.”   Van der Straten travels to the Netherlands next week to talk to the department of Home Affairs.   He expects to also talk about his plea for a coastguard support point on the island.  

When minister Johan Remkes (Home Affairs, VVD) visited the island last week, Van der Straten didn’t get a chance to mention this to him.   He considers a point of support with fast boats that can chase the go-fasts with drugs, firearms, and illegal persons to be essential.   “We cannot be emphasizing on just the controls at the airport, when we do not have sufficient control on other points of entrance of the drugs.”

A radar is going to be installed in Bonaire that can follow all suspicious movements, so a point of support is actually indispensable and possible, even though this depends on whether financing was arranged for this.   “But the minister himself has agreed to expand the border patrol.”

Van der Straten is of the opinion that the civil servants that are currently in charge of controlling the criminality and the borders must get more authority, because these are too limited now.   He didn’t want to say what these limitations are.   All he had to say was that “it is too bureaucratic.”