More than two years after over $640 million in cocaine was shipped to the United States, concealed in orange juice tins, top anti-narcotics police says “some progress” had been made in the case.
The update was given by Supt Lloyd Mc Alpin, head of the Organised Crime Narcotics and Firearms Bureau (OCNFB), during yesterday’s weekly press briefing at Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain.
Pressed to provide an update in what had been touted to be the largest drug bust at Norfolk Port, Virginia, Mc Alpin said local officials had continued to work with the US law enforcement and that “some progress is being made, albeit very slow.” He did not elaborate.
The discovery was made on December 20, 2013 when US Customs and Border Protection officers seized 332 kilos of cocaine which originated from T&T. The cocaine was concealed inside tins of Trinidad Juice Company juices which were part of a consignment of goods that arrived at the Norfolk Port after being shipped from Trinidad.
The narcotics believed to have originated from South America was hidden inside 700 juice tins bearing the markings of the Co-operative Citrus Growers Association (CGA), Eastern Main Road, Laventille.
Mc Alpin also disclosed that police had closed its investigation into $30 million marijuana seizure at the Pt Lisas port, where the illegal drugs was found in September 2011 in a shipping container loaded with frozen chicken.
He said CCTV footage which had been obtained by Jamaican investigators showed the container had been moved to another location before being sent to Trinidad. That evidence, he said, had effectively cleared the local consignee of any wrongdoing. In that case, 921 kilogrammes of marijuana was found in 38 bags in the container.
The officer also provided statistics regarding the seizure of illegal guns, cocaine and marijuana for 2014, 2015, and up to March 2016. The trends show an increase in the seizure of illegal items but a decline in the number of arrests for cocaine possession. On the issue of illegal guns, the officer said: “There seems to be an ever growing market for guns in T&T.”
Blaming the increased homicide rate and gun-related crimes on the proliferation of the illegal gun trade, Mc Alpin said: “Certainly we have a problem in T&T.”
Mc Alpin said his unit was committed to eradicating the supply and distribution of illegal guns, ammunition and dangerous drugs locally. Reinforcing the OCNFB’s mandate, Mc Alpin said they continued to work with regional and international agencies to stem the transnational narcotic and gun trafficking network.
He said while T&T was a destination for marijuana imports from Colombia, Venezuela, Jamaica, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Canada and the US, it was not necessarily an exporter of marijuana, except for small amounts being trafficked to Barbados.
Mc Alpin said drugs were coming to T&T from the South American mainland via pirogues, containers intransit from Jamaica, courier packages and through the national postal service.