Selling craft items to tourists is not the only intention by some vendors who have been using rafts to access beaches at some hotels in Montego Bay, St James. Some of them are actually using it as a cover to sell drugs, THE STAR understands.

The vendors, who can be found on various properties, mainly in Montego Bay, have been using canoes and rafts to paddle through the waves and up to the buoys on the beaches of hotel properties to sell craft items and sometimes cocaine and ganja to tourists.

"We are aware that illegal activities (drug sales) are taking place, but the Marine police and the police from the affected areas have been offering the respective support to stop the activity," Assistant Commissioner Denver Frater, head of Area One Police Headquarters, told THE STAR.

When the news team visited one hotel property in Montego Bay recently, one of the vendors was seen on a raft filled with craft items. He told the team that he chose to go this route because the hotel did not allow him and other craft vendors to sell on property. This vendor, however, was not seen selling drugs and it was not observed among the items he offered for sale.

Proper channels

The vendors such as the one seen by the news team are being disowned by the All-island Craft Vendors' Association. "Those persons who go in the sea are not part of the association. They are on their own," Melody Haughton, president of the association, said.

She said that the association goes through the proper channels when trying to get craft vendors on hotel properties to sell their items. "We go through the hotel managers and try to work out something with them," she said.

Wayne Cummings, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, was also upset about the practice, "It has always been a major concern but we have been working with the police," he said.

Cummings said the association had no problem with craft vending, but said it must be done in 'controlled spaces'. He said the practice makes the country look bad as this is not what the tourists want to experience.

In the meantime, ACP Frater said that the police were having some success in cracking down on the vendors. He said in the last three months, several crafts used by the vendors have been seized by the police and a number of persons have been arrested and charged for selling drugs and vending without a licence.