The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THREE men are in police custody after they were caught attempting to smuggle more than $1 million worth of what is suspected to be marijuana into Andros early yesterday morning.

According to Supt Samuel Butler, Officer in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Unit, the interception was a collaborative effort with Marine Support Services in New Providence, Exuma and Andros around 5:15am.

“We were able to interdict a 30 ft midnight express go fast boat. When officers searched the boat, they discovered some 1,200 pounds of marijuana onboard. We have three males in custody ages 45, 40 and 34 and they are all Bahamians,” he said.

“The drugs have a street value of $1.2 million. It is still early in the investigations, but based on what we have so far it is likely they will appear in court sometime this week. We believe the boat was headed to Andros and based on our intelligence they got the drugs from outside Bahamian territory, we suspect Jamaica.”

Supt Butler said Bahamians are connecting more with Jamaicans and opting to grow marijuana in the Bahamas rather than take the chance of getting it from somewhere else and being caught by police.

“Cultivation is on the increase,” he said. “Bahamians are now connecting with Jamaicans who understand how to do that level of farming. So there is this combination of Bahamian and Jamaicans running cultivation farms. It’s safer for them to do it at home than buy from abroad. It’s less of a chance of them getting caught so they are going into these areas that are not frequented by the general public and cultivating these fields.”

Last week Drug enforcement officers uncovered and uprooted a huge marijuana field in East Grand Bahama worth a reported $16.8 million – the largest in years.

The marijuana plants were said to cover more than 27 plots and scattered over some two miles of land.

Last year, three marijuana fields were discovered in North Andros with an estimated street value of $250,000. Police also found nearly 20,000 marijuana plants in a large field off Carmichael road with an estimated street value of $500,000.

In 2012, police found 30 marijuana fields containing thousands of plants in Grand Bahama with an estimated street value of $40 million.