The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net 

NATIONAL Security Minister Marvin Dames yesterday issued a stern warning to those who continue to engage in illegal drug trafficking, insisting they will be caught.

“The warning is we’ll get you. We’ll get you,” he told reporters ahead of a Cabinet meeting.

“Participating or engaging in a life of crime, you know, could only last for so long and you will be found out.

“That’s the message and you will pay for your actions and the officers in the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the police force and the other law enforcement agencies are demonstrating what good partnership could result in and I’m always pleased.”

His comments came after a Bahamian pilot was arrested Monday after landing a plane in Cat Island with cocaine, estimated at about $1.6m.

Police officials said another man fled the plane and escaped.

According to reports, the plane had left Haiti shortly after noon Monday and initially landed on Long Island, but left “immediately”.

“It later landed on the island of Cat Island where a male was seen disembarking the aircraft with two multi-coloured suitcases. The male ran into nearby bushes. However, one of the surveillance aircraft landed and officers from that craft pursued the male. However, he made good his escape,” Assistant Superintendent of Police Audley Peters said.

Officers suspect this activity was part of a larger, transnational drug operation.

Yesterday, Mr Dames commended the efforts of local law enforcement agencies, who were also assisted by the US Coast Guard, US Customs and Border Protection and the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

The minister added that Monday’s drug seizure was a result of good partnership between The Bahamas and the US.

He said: “They continue to work with their partners in the United States, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the other agencies to interdict at sea and certainly on land and we’re extremely proud. Obviously, the intelligence is extremely good and they’re making quite a bit of really good arrests and we expect that will continue. It’s clear the strategies, the initiatives that are being executed are working and I think that we are extremely pleased.”

Monday’s incident comes more than a month after police found $3.1m worth of suspected cocaine during a drug raid in Eleuthera.

At the time, Assistant Commissioner of Police Solomon Cash reported that an aircraft had landed at the Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera airstrip on March 28. He said when officials “commenced surveillance exercises,” they observed two individuals leaving the aircraft.

“They were searched, however, nothing (was) found in their possession. That operation continued on into the night. As the surveillance team and a search team continued their operation at the airstrip, sometime this morning at 9am, that surveillance team and the operational search team recovered from the airstrip some six multi-coloured bags each containing a large quantity of suspected cocaine. I can tell you when we completed the count it was 155 packages with the street value of $3.1m,” he said at the time.

Three men have since been arraigned in Magistrate’s Court in connection with that incident.