TTDF intercepts vessel carrying suspected plant material

The Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF) in­ter­cept­ed a lo­cal ves­sel dur­ing an ear­ly-morn­ing mar­itime op­er­a­tion to­day, with three Venezue­lan na­tion­als on­board and 11 cro­cus bags con­tain­ing pack­ets of com­pressed, plant-like ma­te­r­i­al dis­cov­ered dur­ing a search.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry of De­fence, TTDF In­ter­cep­tor 030 in­ter­cept­ed the ves­sel, TFV 1231 CHAM­PI­ON, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1:48 a.m., about 10.8 nau­ti­cal miles south­west of Bar­ran­connes Point.

The ves­sel was se­cured and es­cort­ed to Staubles Bay, ar­riv­ing at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 2:10 a.m.

The min­istry said the op­er­a­tion in­volved sup­port from the Strate­gic In­tel­li­gence Unit, Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion and Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sion.

It did not iden­ti­fy the ma­te­r­i­al found aboard the ves­sel or state whether any ar­rests or charges had been made.

The in­ter­cep­tion comes as the TTDF con­tin­ues mar­itime pa­trols aimed at de­tect­ing and dis­rupt­ing threats with­in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters.

In a state­ment, the Min­istry of De­fence com­mend­ed the per­son­nel in­volved for what it de­scribed as a swift re­sponse, dis­ci­pline and op­er­a­tional ef­fec­tive­ness.

The min­istry said the op­er­a­tion demon­strat­ed the de­fence force’s vig­i­lance and op­er­a­tional readi­ness.

“Our mar­itime do­main re­mains un­der ac­tive watch,” the min­istry said, adding that the TTDF would con­tin­ue to “de­tect, in­ter­cept and dis­rupt mar­itime threats” us­ing law­ful ca­pa­bil­i­ties to pro­tect Trinidad and To­ba­go and its ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters.

The dis­cov­ery is ex­pect­ed to be sub­ject to fur­ther ex­am­i­na­tion by the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties as in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the ves­sel and its oc­cu­pants con­tin­ue.