ABSTRACT
On September 12, 1998, Deochan Ramdhanie, considered one of the major “drug lords” of the island of Trinidad and who was serving a life sentence, simply walked out of jail and disappeared. It was soon revealed that the total bribes that secured the cooperation of corrupt police were over U.S.$1 million and that Ramdhanie was already in Venezuela where, according to local police sources, he had good connections and “direct links with the Colombian cartels.”1 The escape seemed to exasperate the society, which, according to the major daily, had seen too many commissions of enquiry into the drug trade, police corruption, and the government’s apparent incapacity to control either. “Hereinafter,” editorialized the Trinidad Guardian, “how this matter is handled can speak volumes about the society’s ability to win this war on drugs.”2 Nearly two weeks after the escape, the government had made no official statement about the matter, which led the same paper to conclude editorially that: “This is, in a word, a scandal!”3 On October 7 it was announced that Ramdhanie had been captured in Venezuela by a “joint operation” of the Venezuelan police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).4
