KINGSTON–Of­fi­cials in the Eng­lish-speak­ing Caribbean are meet­ing in An­tigua to brain­storm ways of strength­en­ing an­ti-mon­ey-laun­der­ing ef­forts.It's an up­hill bat­tle in the Caribbean, which UN ex­perts con­sid­er a top des­ti­na­tion for the laun­der­ing of co­caine in­come.Yes­ter­day, par­tic­i­pants in­clud­ed the heads of fi­nan­cial in­tel­li­gence units from 13 is­lands, in­clud­ing the off­shore fi­nance pow­er­hous­es of the Cay­man Is­lands and the British Vir­gin Is­lands.

Mon­ey laun­der­ing ex­pert Jef­frey Robin­son says he be­lieves of­fi­cials in the Caribbean are try­ing their best to in­ter­rupt the flow of dirty mon­ey. He says that in ear­li­er decades the is­lands "weren't do­ing any­thing."The meet­ing is fund­ed by a Caribbean crim­i­nal as­sets re­cov­ery pro­gramme of the British De­part­ment for In­ter­na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment.

AP