Pubdate: Mon, 12 Jun 2000
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 2000 Associated Press

CARIBBEAN DRUG BUST CAUSES RIPPLES

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- It was a small victory in the drug war, a U.S.
sting that netted a suspected midlevel cocaine trafficker and possible
charges against the son of a former prime minister.

The operation to lure the suspect off St. Kitts so he could be arrested by
American officers on the high seas and spirited away to U.S. territory
barely made foreign headlines, but it sent a shock wave across the
Caribbean.

While many Caribbean leaders recognize they need U.S. help to fight drug
cartels whose resources dwarf their own, perceptions of strong-arming by
Washington raise hackles among their citizens. That's been the case with the
arrest of Wayne Bridgewater, a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Big drug seizures, money-laundering investigations and White House
proclamations targeting drug kingpins may be the high-profile markers of the
Caribbean drug war, but actions like Bridgewater's arrest underscore the
delicate political sensibilities in the war's skirmishes.

``Was the government in St. Kitts-Nevis aware of what was happening?'' asked
The Daily Herald on St. Maarten. ``Why did the government of Antigua, if it
knew, allow a national of another Caribbean island to be taken away from his
native land in such a manner?''

The U.S. government says Bridgewater, 28, was lured to a St. Kitts beach on
June 2, ostensibly to travel to the neighboring Dutch island of St. Maarten
by chartered boat to receive a payoff for an 11-pound cocaine shipment.

Once the boat cleared St. Kitts and Nevis' 12-mile territorial limit, U.S.
undercover agents on the boat slapped handcuffs on Bridgewater and raced him
to Antigua, another island nation from where a U.S. aircraft quickly flew
him to Puerto Rico. Bridgewater faces a June 19 hearing on charges arising
from the sting.

On Thursday, U.S. drug agents announced they were seeking a related
indictment on cocaine trafficking charges against Kenrick Simmonds, a
Bridgewater associate and American Airlines employee whose father is former
St. Kitts Premier Kennedy Simmonds.

Bridgewater is a reputed member of a violent eastern Caribbean gang
allegedly operated by Charles ``Little Nut'' Miller, who was extradited from
St. Kitts to Miami in February to face trial for a half-ton cocaine shipment
to the United States.

The State Department said in 1998 that Miller threatened to kill American
students at St. Kitts' Ross Veterinary University if he were extradited. St.
Kitts' police commissioner, Calvin Fahie, said after the extradition that
Miller had long terrorized the islands' 48,000 citizens.

U.S. officials say Miller's gang won't hesitate to kill. They implicate gang
members -- including Bridgewater -- in the brazen 1994 murder of St. Kitts
Police Commissioner Jude Matthew, who was investigating a cocaine shipment
allegedly tied to Miller as well as the related slayings of the son of a
deputy premier and the son's girlfriend.

The case brought down Simmonds' government in 1995. Miller wasn't charged in
Matthew's killing.

U.S. officials hailed Bridgewater's arrest and Simmonds' likely indictment
as evidence of even better cooperation between Washington and Caribbean
police forces, including St. Kitts and Antigua.

``The police in St. Kitts have been cooperating not only with Bridgewater
but in the Charles Miller case because they fully recognize the violent
tendencies of this group,'' proclaimed Michael Vigil, chief of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration's Caribbean operations.

But police in St. Kitts initially denied knowing about the sting. Fahie said
police didn't learn of Bridgewater's disappearance until Kenrick Simmonds
called in a missing person's report late on June 2.

American officials have declined to argue with their counterparts on St.
Kitts, seeking to avoid stirring up passions over what was a shared victory.
Only days before, Prime Minister Denzil Douglas had objected to the recent
White House publication of a list of wanted drug kingpins that included two
St. Kitts men. He complained it could hurt efforts to promote tourism, a key
business on St. Kitts.
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MAP posted-by: Don Beck