{"id":40313,"date":"2013-10-01T10:18:21","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T14:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=40313"},"modified":"2013-10-08T19:58:01","modified_gmt":"2013-10-08T23:58:01","slug":"opbat-partnership-results-in-major-drug-seizure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/10\/opbat-partnership-results-in-major-drug-seizure","title":{"rendered":"OPBAT Partnership Results in Major Drug Seizure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-40314\" title=\"united-states-drugs-seized\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/united-states-drugs-seized.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/united-states-drugs-seized.jpg 540w, https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/united-states-drugs-seized-150x69.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/united-states-drugs-seized-250x115.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On Friday, September 27, Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT), consisting of the U.S. Coast Guard, Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) Drug Enforcement Unit and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), located 67 bales of marijuana on Little Farmer&#8217;s Cay in the Exuma island chain of The Bahamas.<\/p>\n<p>The seizure is the second in a week and is a direct result of coordinated U.S. and Bahamian counter-narcotics effort known as Operation Lion Fish.<\/p>\n<p>The marijuana was discovered in a hidden cache on a remote cay and totaled 2,307 pounds.\u00a0 The estimated wholesale value is in excess of $2 million.\u00a0 Following the discovery, a U.S. Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew deployed from Air Station Clearwater, Fla., transported the contraband to Bahamian law enforcement authorities in Nassau.\u00a0 Four suspects were also taken into custody during the seizure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The OPBAT team continues to protect both Bahamian and U.S. citizens from the dangers of illegal drug trade,&#8221; said Cmdr. Mark Driver, director of Coast Guard OPBAT.<br \/>\n&#8220;This drug seizure reinforces the importance of continued cooperation between the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Coast Guard, and Royal Bahamas Police Force to combat illegal narcotic trafficking through The Bahamas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>OPBAT is a combined DEA, Coast Guard and Government of The Bahamas partnership to combat drug smuggling to and from The Bahamas.\u00a0 The OPBAT Operations Center is responsible for initiating and prosecuting law enforcement cases in the Bahamian area of responsibility (AOR).\u00a0 In addition, OPBAT assets regularly assist with prosecuting human smuggling and search and rescue cases throughout the AOR.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>Caption: Bales of marijuana seized on Little Farmer&#8217;s Cay in the Exuma island chain on September 28.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>United States Embassy, Nassau<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT) located 67 bales of marijuana on Little Farmer&#8217;s Cay in the Exuma island chain of The Bahamas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"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":[67,113],"class_list":["post-40313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-drugs","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40313","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}