The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net 

ASSISTANT Commissioner of Police (ACP) Roberto Goodman highlighted an alarming trend of drug traffickers increasingly exploiting courier companies to smuggle illegal substances.

He said while many of these companies are unaware of the illicit activities, some employees have actively facilitated criminal operations.

“We are working closely with those companies to ensure that these things do not happen,” he said. “When we find that anyone working at that company is involved, we bring those persons to justice.”

The Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) has reportedly uncovered multiple instances of drugs, weapons, and ammunition being smuggled through courier services, though ACP Goodman did not give exact statistics.

“Some of the trends change, but some of them are old trends,” he said. “Lately, you see where we have these courier companies, drugs coming through these courier companies, and we were able to make some significant seizures through these courier companies. Not only drugs, we also found weapons and ammunition, along with some other things.”

When asked if these courier companies were complicit, ACP Goodman said most of the crimes were unknown to the companies.

“Some persons who work within those companies were able to facilitate some of the persons outside, who are involved in these drug transactions,” he said.

The RBPF is working with courier companies to ensure their systems are not exploited, ACP Goodman said. “We send our intelligence persons in, and then we are able to do some things covertly and be able to make some significant arrests,” he added.

ACP Goodman withheld the identity of specific companies to protect the integrity of ongoing investigations.

He encouraged the public to report any suspicious activities involving drug peddlers or illegal operations.

“We admonish all those persons who are involved in the criminal aspect of it, all these drug trafficking organisations, who continue to live off ill-gotten gains,” ACP Goodman said. “We are coming after you.”

“From the north to the southern part of The Bahamas is protected. We are out there working in collaboration with local police officers who are transferred to those islands.”