TTPS seizes $47m in marijuana

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice has re­port­ed a ma­jor mar­i­jua­na seizure fol­low­ing an in­tel­li­gence-led op­er­a­tion con­duct­ed by the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit in the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion on Wednes­day.

Ac­cord­ing to the TTPS, of­fi­cers of the SIU ex­e­cut­ed the ex­er­cise be­tween 1:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. un­der the lead­er­ship of Snr Supt Ed­wards, Supt Eti­enne, ASP Lynch and ASP Morales, with sup­port from the In­ter-Agency Task Force. The op­er­a­tion was based on ac­tion­able in­tel­li­gence.

Dur­ing the ex­er­cise, of­fi­cers searched a res­i­dence in the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tion, 2025. Po­lice said the search un­cov­ered 10 cro­cus bags and five garbage bags con­tain­ing cannabis. The drugs were lat­er weighed at 413.68 kilo­grams and val­ued at TT $47,687,266.44.

The on-site search was su­per­vised by In­sp Nixon and In­sp Am­mon. Two men were tak­en in­to cus­tody in con­nec­tion with the dis­cov­ery.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro com­mend­ed the SIU and sup­port­ing units, not­ing the co­or­di­nat­ed ef­fort in­volved in the op­er­a­tion. He said the seizure fol­lowed an­oth­er ex­er­cise hours ear­li­er in which $4.4 mil­lion worth of cannabis was re­cov­ered.

The Com­mis­sion­er said the work of the SIU con­tin­ues to dis­rupt drug-traf­fick­ing ac­tiv­i­ty across Trinidad and To­ba­go as the ser­vice main­tains its fo­cus on op­er­a­tions based on in­tel­li­gence and in­ter-unit co­op­er­a­tion.