Drug info - In search of the white lobster

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Guardian Weekly Friday October 19th 2007...Nicaragua's 'white lobster' – the cocaine that washes up on its shores from botched drug busts at sea. Here, we feature an alternative look at the drugs situation there. Randolph Carter, 50, is a former government official who became a crack addict. He decided to give up when his arm was shot off by narcotics traffickers as he tried to save his friend. Carter, who now lives in Bluefields (a large port on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast), also discusses the 'white lobster' and Ted Hayman, whose alleged 220kg find has made him something of a local celebrity.

During the war I was a student, before taking up my accounting career here in Bluefields. After the war, when things started to fire up again, I started work with the army. We founded immigration here, working with the new Sandinista government, who militarised the office of immigration. I was second chief of immigration in 1979 and worked there for about five years.

In 1985 I had to run away from the army, illegally. Things had started going badly in the contra war and, politically, things had started to change. It was not a good situation. So I left and went to Corn Island. I was working there as a fisherman when things began to go wrong with my first wife. I took it very badly. I was broken-hearted, in a bad way. That’s when I became involved with crack.

There were a lot of drugs around and I got involved really bad. That was in the early 1990s. I lost my arm in 2004.

The mafia operate skiffs from San Andros Island [owned by Colombia] to Corn Island. In this incident, they had run out of fuel, so they came to my friend and gave him a lot of money for fuel and to hide them. But my friend just took the money. He didn’t give them the fuel and didn’t hide them. They were not happy. That’s why they threatened to kill him, but they shot me instead when I tried to save him. They shot me in the arm, pretty much blew it right off. I saved my friend and they shot me.

So after separating from my wife, my mind turned to the other side and I started using drugs. There is a big difference from being an immigration officer, then dropping down to a drug addict.

Practically, there were a lot of drugs circulating because the skiffs would pass very close to Corn Island, so it was very easy to get involved. But the very night I got shot, I said to myself: “Randolph, I think this life is over.”

And that was it. It was hard but I did it. Now, here in Bluefields, there are a lot of crack users. I have a lot of friends who use it. You just have to be strong.

People here say that the cocaine that washes up on the shore is a blessing from God. It is not a blessing from God.

We have no work here, so the first thing that people think of when they find some is to improve their situation, because it helps economically. They build a house, get a skiff, improve their lives for themselves and their families. They don’t see the morals, they only see how it can help their own situation.

Say we have a church in misery, a church that needs to be repaired; we might apply for help from the government, but it doesn’t come. Help can only come when a package arrives. People see it as a solution. That’s the only choice around here.

As for Ted Hayman, he is one of the great expanders of destruction. People who find packages in Tasbapauni have got to find buyers. According to the stories, he buys it from them. He is a big buyer.

People look at him as if there is a god in Tasbapauni because he takes the money and uses it to help people. He has the chance to do this, to help, so people look at him as if he is great. He is one of the biggest guys around here. He invests and buys.

I believe the police aren’t even trying to stop him. There is a lot of corruption here. They just get given a lot of money and they forget their duty.


Randolph was interviewed by Susan Schulman. For more on the 'white lobster', see The Guardian's coverage here.

See also this audio-sideshow.

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Image: Randolph Carter at home. Photograph: Susan Schulman