{"id":32245,"date":"2013-02-27T23:38:04","date_gmt":"2013-02-28T04:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=32245"},"modified":"2013-02-27T23:49:29","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T04:49:29","slug":"2-million-in-cocaine-seized-off-inagua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/02\/2-million-in-cocaine-seized-off-inagua","title":{"rendered":"$2 Million In Cocaine Seized Off Inagua"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Days after police confiscated $800,000 worth of cocaine from a Haitian vessel off Inagua, officers hauled in $2 million worth of cocaine from another Haitian vessel off Inagua on Monday.<\/p>\n

The latest drug find, a total of 128 kilos of cocaine, is the largest cocaine seizure for the year so far, according to Superintendent Samuel Butler, who heads the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU).<\/p>\n

DEU officers transported the drugs to New Providence yesterday.<\/p>\n

According to police, DEU officers along with officers from Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT) conducted a search of a blue and yellow 75-foot Haitian vessel \u201cPoseidon\u201d at Matthew Town, Inagua, on Monday evening, and discovered the drugs in various hidden compartments.<\/p>\n

As a result, five people were arrested \u2014 one Bahamian and four Haitians.<\/p>\n

The suspects were also flown to New Providence yesterday where they will remain in custody. Butler said they could be charged as early as today.<\/p>\n

The arrests came after police arrested six Haitian men who were allegedly caught at Great Inagua with 49 kilos of cocaine.<\/p>\n

According to police, officers arrested the six men around 4 p.m. on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The men were onboard a blue and white 89-foot wooden vessel called \u201cTrinity\u201d.<\/p>\n

The suspects were flown to New Providence last week and charged with drug-related offenses on Monday.<\/p>\n

Police said it is too early to tell whether the two cases are connected.<\/p>\n

In its last report, the US Department of State identified Haitian and Haitian-Bahamian drug trafficking organizations as major contributors to the drug trade in The Bahamas.<\/p>\n

The 2012 International Narcotic Control Strategy Report said, \u201cHaitian and Haitian-Bahamian drug trafficking organizations continue to play a major role in the movement of cocaine from Hispaniola through The Bahamas. Investigations of these organizations are hindered by an enduring lack of Creole speakers within the DEU.<\/p>\n

\u201cBahamian law enforcement regularly discover drugs during inspections of Haitian sloops that continue to enter Bahamian waters despite being officially prohibited from doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, all of the suspects arrested are presumed innocent until proved guilty in court.<\/p>\n

Butler said that the discovery of drugs on Haitian sloops has been a long-standing problem in The Bahamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been going on for quite a while and we are always concerned,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are certainly concerned about the trend that we are seeing developing in a consistent fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butler said the DEU has recruited several officers who can speak Creole. \u201cSo we are better off this year than we were last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

US anti-drug-related agencies estimate that there are 12 to 15 significant drug trafficking organizations operating in The Bahamas.<\/p>\n

By Krystel Rolle <\/span><\/em>
\nGuardian Staff Reporter<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just days after confiscated $800,000 worth of cocaine from a Haitian vessel off Inagua, Drug Enforcement officers hauled in $2 million worth of cocaine from another Haitian vessel, the largest cocaine seizure of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[967,1271,968],"class_list":["post-32245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-cocaine","tag-drug-enforcement-unit","tag-inagua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}