Other articles by Kim Smith:

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When Anthony Brown showed up on East Poinciana Drive with a suitcase last Dec. 18, he wasn't there to visit relatives for Christmas.

Instead of clothes, the Jamaican carried $97,000 in cash in his suitcase, and he was in Tucson to buy 242 pounds of marijuana.

"Something went terribly wrong" when Brown started to inspect the marijuana and negotiate a price, though, said Deputy Pima County Attorney Richard Wintory.

Gunfire erupted and Brown ran down the East Side street with his suitcase, two men from Mexico hot on his heels in a car. The three men fired repeatedly at one another before the men ran Brown over and grabbed his suitcase.

Investigating officers served a search warrant on the house later, found the pot and the cash and made the appropriate arrests. Two weeks ago, Brown was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted possession of marijuana.

It may be a surprise to some, but Brown isn't the first Jamaican prosecuted in Pima County on marijuana charges, Wintory said.

In fact, Jamaican drug-trafficking organizations play a significant role in Southern Arizona's thriving marijuana business, according to local officials.

Arizona Department of Public Safety Sgt. Mark Morelock has been dealing with Jamaican drug traffickers for 15 years, which is as long as he's been supervising narcotics investigations.

"We bust Jamaican buyers with a significant amount of marijuana on a regular basis," Morelock said of the Counter Narcotics Alliance.

By "a significant amount," Morelock means loads of marijuana in excess of 100 pounds.

Once Mexican drug traffickers bring the marijuana into the United States, it is stored throughout Tucson.

Brokers make deals with drug-trafficking organizations from elsewhere in the United States, and then the marijuana is repackaged and prepared for shipment.

"Drug trafficking in Tucson is all about the wonderful business climate we provide," Wintory said. "We provide the stash houses and the brokers."

Jamaicans will buy the marijuana for $500 a pound and then turn around and sell it in Ohio, Georgia, Florida and New York for anywhere from $1,000 to $1,200 a pound, Morelock said.

"Even if you came out here just to buy 50 pounds and you go back and double your money, you're going to see a significant profit if you do it on a regular basis," Morelock said.

Just as with other drug-trafficking organizations, Jamai-cans will ship the marijuana back East using shipping companies or by loading up private and commercial vehicles.

Morelock said he will never forget Dudley Mitchell, a native Jamaican.

Mitchell was convicted on multiple counts in both Tampa, Fla., and Tucson after he rented a Learjet to fly him from Florida to Arizona so he could negotiate the purchase of $750,000 worth of marijuana in Tucson.

Thanks to wiretaps, he was arrested at a Scottsdale airport with $407,000 in cash, a gun and a bulletproof vest.

Anthony J. Coulson, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Tucson, said Jamaicans often get arrested because they are so overt.

"They lack a level of sophistication in their trafficking techniques, which makes them very vulnerable to law enforcement," Coulson said, declining to elaborate.

In fact, they are so overt that Coulson said he thinks they are probably ripped off by rival drug traffickers or their suppliers 50 percent of the time.

"They'll front the money and never see anybody again," Coulson said.

Next May, Wintory is to try Maria Isabel Dominguez, the alleged ringleader of the largest marijuana organization ever busted in Tucson.

Forty-three people were indicted in connection with the case in 2004 — nine of them Jamaicans.

Another five Jamaicans were turned over to federal authorities in New York for prosecution there, Wintory said.

Authorities believe Domin-guez's organization brokered deals between various Mexican supply organizations and Jamaican distributors for several years, Wintory said.

In fact, they think the organization helped move around 2,300 pounds of marijuana every month it was in operation, Wintory said.

Although detectives usually have to be satisfied with busting middlemen, they were able to arrest more people from top to bottom in that case than in any other, thanks to wiretaps, Wintory said.

"It's inarguable that we destroyed the whole structure of the Dominguez brokering organization," Wintory said.

In late September, Pima County sheriff's deputies seized 11,000 pounds of marijuana after being called about a possible burglary in progress.

Edgar Loreto LaMadrid was indicted Oct. 22 on drug conspiracy and marijuana possession charges.

According to the indictment, LaMadrid and his co-defendants possessed 51 tons of marijuana between January and September and conspired to sell it.

They went so far as to convert three bedrooms into a refrigerated storage and processing facility. Detectives want to know where the marijuana came from and who it was intended for, Wintory said.

There's a chance it was intended for a Jamaican drug-trafficking organization, Wintory said.

The Counter Narcotics Alliance hopes to make Tucson as inhospitable to drug traffickers as possible, just as law enforcement agencies did with the Jamaicans in Florida in the 1980s, Wintory said.

Luckily, no innocent bystanders were injured in the Anthony Brown case, but Morelock himself was almost killed when trying to rescue a Jamaican drug trafficker two years ago.

A group of Mexican drug traffickers, pretending to be DEA agents, tried to kidnap two Jamaicans in Tucson to buy some marijuana.

The men intended to hold Clive Cook-Tracey and Albert Walker for ransom, Wintory said. Walker got away immediately, but Cook-Tracey did not.

The men were in the middle of negotiating Cook-Tracey's ransom when one of the kidnappers found Morelock conducting surveillance.

The man came up to his truck and fired his gun twice at the sergeant's head, saying, "I know you're a cop," Wintory said. The gun misfired both times, and Morelock was able to escape.

"As long as Tucson neighborhoods are a marketplace for brokers and buyers, we're going to have home invasions, rip-offs and gunfights, and innocent people will continue to be put at risk," Wintory said.