Police have taken six Haitian males into custody following a major drug bust.
The Drug Enforcement Unit acting on intelligence provided by the southern islands managed to intercept a 60 foot vessel off the tip of Eleuthera after following from the boat from Inagua shortly after 7:30 pm last night.
Upon inspection of the freighter officials found several packages of cocaine with an estimated street value of $1.8 million.
Chief Superintendent Samuel Butler applauded the efforts of the Drug Enforcement Unit and says that the recent success of busts and seizures can be attributed to the relationship the DEU has with other organizations.
“While we are early in this investigation, we are proud to say that the efforts of the Drug Enforcement Unit along with its partners the Marine Support Unit, and The District Attorney, we continue to work together in a joint effort on drug interdiction, we have been very successful during the earlier part of this year, the first quarter and again we are determining that we will continue to have this level of success and co-operation,” Mr. Butler said.
Butler would go on to allude to the role that technology is playing in the recent success of seizures and how the Police Force at large is greatly benefiting from these new advancements.
“We are elated to be a part of the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the wider policing community, we don’t expose our technology but we are so happy that we are interfacing with technology and had it not been for technology, many of our success would not be had but we’ll continue to work and we’ll continue to be consistent and persistent going after drug traffickers trying to traverse our waters and enter into our territory of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” added Butler.
He would go on to say how difficult of a task it is working in drug enforcement and that it takes commitment from all facets of the department to truly work efficiently.
“It is certainly committed work, determined work, persons who are prepared to work very long hours, to be very resilient in what they do, just talking about this particular matter as we said earlier, it was some time around 7:30 p.m. last night that the officers interdicted this vessel, they were not able to make it to this port until 5:00 a.m. this morning, they’re still here, they’re still persevering, they’re still searching diligently,” said Mr. Butler.
He would also go on to note the level of expertise and craftiness used by the alleged perpetrators in avoiding the discovery of the narcotics aboard the vessel.
“We talk about the method of concealment and it is very ingenious on behalf of the perpetrators, they did not make it easier for law enforcement but because of our determination and will to work and will to get it done as you can see officers are putting their best foot forward and we definitely want to sing their praises in that regard,” said Butler.
The six adult males were taken into custody for questioning.