CARICOM IMPACS operation seizes US$54.5m in illicit assets

CARI­COM IM­PACS says a four-week re­gion­al op­er­a­tion has dis­rupt­ed transna­tion­al smug­gling net­works and seized an es­ti­mat­ed US$54.5 mil­lion in il­lic­it as­sets and con­tra­band.

Op­er­a­tion Eclipse, car­ried out in May, in­volved 14 CARI­COM mem­ber states, sev­en as­so­ciate mem­bers and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners in­clud­ing the US, Cana­da, Colom­bia, France, the UK and IN­TER­POL.

Au­thor­i­ties seized more than 5.2 tonnes of co­caine, val­ued at over US$44 mil­lion, and 1.8 tonnes of mar­i­jua­na, val­ued at more than US$6.8 mil­lion.

They al­so con­fis­cat­ed more than 6,100 cas­es of il­le­gal al­co­hol, 191 car­tons of cig­a­rettes and 22 cylin­ders of banned re­frig­er­ant gas.

The op­er­a­tion re­sult­ed in 24 seizure op­er­a­tions, with au­thor­i­ties mon­i­tor­ing 59 ves­sels of in­ter­est and gen­er­at­ing 82 ac­tive in­tel­li­gence cas­es.

Two firearms, 65 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion, 13 ves­sels and three ve­hi­cles linked to smug­gling net­works were al­so seized.

Au­thor­i­ties in­ter­cept­ed 59 ir­reg­u­lar mi­grants trav­el­ling through air and sea routes.

CARI­COM IM­PACS says the op­er­a­tion tar­get­ed the East­ern Caribbean, Guyanese wa­ters and transat­lantic routes, while al­so un­cov­er­ing a grow­ing trend of air­craft drop­ping nar­cotics near bor­ders for mar­itime col­lec­tion.