i now know why the ai's warn their guests.

[original spanky]

the Jamaican people are great but the police are the danger.
probably about my 50th trip over 39 years and just the second time i have been hassled by the police.
the first was minor but this one was bad.
had been in red ground visiting the family we have known all these years and was going to head back to B.C.C.. one of the boys offered a ride so we took it. got stoppd at the church at the bottom of the road. car was completely searched and a small amount of ganga was found.
the cop started off that we would all go to jail even though we were just riding in the car. of course my first thought was "how much is this going to cost me?". we were there approx an hour though and the longer we were there the more i thought a possibility he was going to take us in. this being a saturday night we of course had no interest in being there till monday. my wife was freaking out of course as we would of course be seperated. the cop played it for all he could and $300 U.S. later we were free to go. he let our friend take us to the hotel and get the cash. BASICALLY I GOT ROBBED by a guy with a gun in a police uniform.

[NEGRILJAIL]

Bumb***** !!!!!

[luvjabd]

Yes, you were robbed and that sucks!!
I too, for the first time ever (1st trip 1996) had ganja taken from me by undercover (yes, I asked for ID).
(Short version of story)
Some renta was in my ear and I believe he was selling ganja, the cop for some odd reason thought I was holding the stash for the renta.
According to the cop, because I cooperated he let me go FREE, but kept the ganja of course.

[Chet & Coleen]

The equation the way I think it

ganja + car = nothing good is going to come of this
nothing good is going to come of this / ganja = fine

[Tommy]

Sorry to hear about your experience. FYI. Babylon...Never trust them.

[Rob]

All the more reason to only use legally licensed and insured red plated taxis. As has been mentioned, Negril is a small town and the police pretty much know everybody.

Perhaps you dont know this person as well as the police do. Like it or not, you were involved in an illegal activity and you didnt go to jail. Count your blessings, and next time take a legal taxi. Had you been in a legal taxi, you would not have had to worry about being an accomplice to a crime.

If a legal taxi is carrying something illegal, all passengers are considered innocent. This is not the case when you are in a private passenger vehicle.

[Nick]

A very informative thread. Sorry about you and your wife being hassled, that must of been a real pain, but thanks for the heads up and the advice.

[utenlov]

Sorry for your bad experience. I don't know what I would have done. I must admit that guns give me the creeps, regardless of who's carrying it. I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with the fact that police in most countries are armed. I'm just not used to it.

[Kritter]

Whoa ... that must have been scarey. I've done a fair amount of driving in JA and have been pulled over several times. Sometimes it's just been their routine inspection stops ... other times, they may have clocked me with their radar (oops, lead foot). I've been fortunate never to have gotten a ticket, but I've been threatened with a 'very large fine'. I will say that being a woman seems to have worked in my favor (and no, I don't give favors), and sometimes my time in Jamaica has been on official business, and in those cases, when I tell them that I will need to have them talk to my contact at the Embassy and explain exactly what they'd like to fine me with - the police have always backed off......and frankly it's because they don't really want to write me a citation .... they want to get paid off individually - just like the $300 you forked over. Other times when I've been pulled over, they've been more interested in getting my phone number and letting me know what time they get off work. Once, I was pulled over and the first thing the cop said to me was, "well, you look like you work out at the gym"..... I knew at that moment this was more of a courtesy stop than a violation. Really sorry Spanky that you had to go through that ..... but thank God you and your wife were not incarcerated .... I hear it's no vacation behind Jamaican bars.

[original spanky]

thanks for the replies. i do realize it could have been a lot worse not financially but in all other ways. just need to be more carefull going forward. as a sidenote we are actually returning with our 12 and 15 year olds in a few weeks and could you imagine if they had been in the car and that's how they found out their dad had ganja!!