September 17, 2011
guardian.co.tt
After hours of continuous searching at the Port of Point Lisas, police seized yet another 40-foot container of high grade Arizona marijuana on Thursday evening. Customs and Excise officers said the haul had a street value of $7.4 million. But in a news release late yesterday the Police Service Public Affairs Unit quoted the street value as $30 million. The release said the value had been confirmed by an “expert in the field of narcotics.” But Customs communications manager, Alicia Charles, said yesterday Customs and Excise worked out the figure by calculating a kilo of marijuana to be approximately $8,000. She said the officers found 38 bags of marijuana weighing more than 921 kilos.
She said the seizure was part of an ongoing joint operation between the Customs and Excise Division and Pt Lisas Port security which started at the beginning of the year. Containers that came into the port which fitted a particular profile were singled out for inspection, she noted. A prominent businessman of central Trinidad, to whom the container had been assigned, was said to be assisting police with inquiries up to late yesterday. Thursday’s seizure was the fourth major drug bust at the port within six months. Sources said it was not the first time a container of drugs assigned to that businessman was seized by law enforcement officers.
Full Article : guardian.co.tt
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$30m DRUG BUST
Ganja seized among frozen chicken at Point Lisas
One tonne of drugs seized
One tonne of high grade compressed marijuana believed to have originated from Jamaica was discovered among frozen chicken parts and beef patties in a 40-foot container at the Port of Point Lisas on Thursday afternoon.
…Smugglers try new tactics
The drug smugglers used a new method on the Point Lisas port by stashing bales of marijuana in a refrigerated freight container, president of the Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation (Plipdeco), Ernest Ashley Taylor, said yesterday.
See my comments under 21men freed. Next, search every container during on 24 hour period. post sentries and small patrol boats in the swamp for night pareols and monitor the secluded inlets of Tobago, so beloved of foreign yatchs. We will get them bit by bit. this is not a Laventille exercise. Mr. and Mrs. Big may already be on the run.
“A prominent businessman of central Trinidad, to whom the container had been assigned, was said to be assisting police with inquiries up to late yesterday”.
Let’s hope he is under arrest and placed in the common jail like everyone else and not given preferential treatment by the Police.
There is more questions than answers to this drug bust. Where is the final destination of this drugs. It certainly could not be Trinidad. Cudoes to security services for finding the drugs. But how many containers of drugs came through the port. Intelligence would require better servallence of the port in light of our proximity to drug ridden ciountries.
Why not wait till the container is claimed to see who picks it up. If the businessman reports to the police then he is innocent. However, ff the police never hears from him then they would have evidence and so this would have then been considered a major drug bust. But here we go again, we really need better policing in our developing nation.
LMFAO; so we’re now importing American Marijuana?
spot on. The seizure of marijuana is an excuse for the lack of action on white collar criminals, cocaine trafficking and transnational drug rings who corrupt our senior officials/institutions. A smokescreen if you will. Get everyone moralistic about catching something – in this case imported ganja (like we need to import it) – and let the elephant in the room (the cocaine trade) keep shitting over our society
their is a crime/drug chain, we need to trace who is at the TOP, WHO IS IN THE MIDDLE, AND WHO IS AT THE END. LET’S GET A PROACTIVE SYSTEM TO DEAL WITH THE CRIME, AND NOT JUST REACTIVE.!!!
WE NEED SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS AT THE PORTS, ARMY, POLICE AND SNIFFER DOGS AT THE OPENING OF ALL CONTAINERS!!!
MONITOR ALL YATCHS DOCKING AT CHAGUARAMAS.!!1
“The drug bust, said chairman of Plipdeco, Ian Atherly, would help restore confidence in the work of law enforcement, and showed there were still people with integrity working with the Customs and Immigration departments”.
Ian Atherly got it right. They need to find the people “without integrity” working with the Customs and Immigration departments also. These are the ordinary “uncivil servants” who live in middle class neighborhoods with their families and probably attend church, temple or mosque regularly.
I agree Karibkween! TNT always worries about image and how things look in the eyes of other nations. TNT fears that it would look bad if they didn’t support the obolition of Marijuana. I ask everyone, what is worse, looking bad for failing to uphold a law that is archaic at best or importing marijuana from the country that urged every other nation in the world to sign a law to enforce the prohibition of the law? TNT the laughing stock of the caribbean. Other Caricom nations grow thier own while TNT import it from the ganja/ cush/ cronic/ etc… capital of the world.