The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

FOUR Bahamians, three men and one woman, are in police custody after they were caught with more than $1m worth of cocaine and marijuana on Wednesday night.

Chief Superintendent Samuel Butler, officer-in-charge of the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU), said a combination of team work and “excellent textbook” police work led to the drug bust and the arrest of the suspects at a home off Carmichael Road.

According to reports, shortly before 11pm, a DEU team assisted by officers from the Police Marine Support Unit executed a search warrant at a home where they found over 30 bales of marijuana and a quantity of cocaine. The four suspects, aged 41, 39, 27 and 23, were taken into custody for questioning.

The drugs weigh 1,186lbs and have a street value of $1,186,000. Investigations continue.

The seizure comes two weeks after police arrested six men, five Bahamians and one Jamaican, following a major drug find in waters off South Andros.

The US Coast Guard reported that 5,050lbs of marijuana had been seized, with an estimated wholesale value of $4.6m.

According to the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF), a team of DEU officers assisted by officers from the Police Marine Support Services Unit, acting on intelligence, intercepted a 35-foot go-fast vessel in waters off Kemps Bay, South Andros. A subsequent search of the vessel revealed a large quantity of marijuana, police said.

The suspects were then taken into custody for questioning and the drugs offloaded at the RBPF’s Marine Support Services Branch on East Bay Street in Nassau.

In January, Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade revealed that marijuana seizures increased last year compared to 2013. The drug figures, provided by Mr Greenslade during a review of 2014’s crime statistics at police headquarters, showed that police seized 20,602lbs of marijuana last year – 2,998 more than the 17,604lbs seized in 2013.