Keile Campbell
Journal Staff Writer
The recent $10 million drug bust in Long Island has contributed to a safer Bahamas, according to Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) Press Liaison Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings, who updated the media on the drug interception over the weekend.
Two Bahamian men were arrested after an aircraft was discovered shortly before midnight on Sunday at the Stella Maris Airport containing 16 crocus sacks of suspected cocaine. However, Chief Supt. Skippings revealed more drugs were discovered after a further search.
“An additional search of the aircraft revealed five additional crocus sacks of suspected cocaine, and so, we’re actively investigating this particular drug bust. As indicated, we do have two Bahamian males in custody. One is believed to be 61-year-old and a 49-year-old,” Chief Supt. Skippings explained.
“As you know, many of the crimes that occur within our country occur as a result of drugs and firearms, and so it is always good when our agencies can collaborate and work together to interdict these such drugs coming into the country.”
Chief Supt. Skippings also revealed that police are monitoring the airport and shipments coming into Long Island, having noticed a potential trend of smugglers using the island to import drugs.
Though marijuana is still the primary drug trafficked, Commander of the RBPF’s Drug Enforcement Unit Chief Superintendent Roberto Goodman expanded on his unit’s interception efforts and the trend noticed.
“We’ve been seeing that the most southern islands in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, we’ve been seeing that traffickers are now using that as a hub now to transport cocaine, particularly these cocaine matters and we’ve even seen a trend now because we’ll see, like, the holidays or when it’s busy and some of the manpower resources being used through the organization we see the drug smugglers try to use this opportunity to traffic drugs, but we’ll continue to be relentless in the drug enforcement unit and as long as we get the information then we’ll come in and we’ll be arresting those persons who continue to traffic drugs in our commonwealth,” Chief Supt. Goodman said.
Chief Supt. Skippings underlined the importance of their work to keep drugs off the streets of the Bahamas.
“Many of our young men’s lives have been spared because of the interdiction and so we need members of the public to understand how important it is for them to collaborate, provide that intelligence to your police department at all times. It is when we intercept drugs that we save lives, and we save the lives of our young men in particular that we see being gunned down on the streets daily. This is really a bonus for many families as this time as we’re saving lives.”
The drug bust was a joint effort by OPBAT, the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU), the DEA, U.S Coast Guard and local police on Long Island as the suspected drugs were transferred from a U.S Coast Guard helicopter and into the custody of the RBPF’s DEU.
