Two Cara­pichaima fam­i­lies will ap­pear be­fore a Ch­agua­nas mag­is­trate to­day in con­nec­tion with a $500,000 mar­i­jua­na seizure yes­ter­day. The fam­i­lies were ar­rest­ed yes­ter­day morn­ing by of­fi­cers of the Ch­agua­nas CID led by In­sp Wayne Lawrence dur­ing an an­ti-crime ex­er­cise in the area. Po­lice ex­e­cut­ed search war­rants at two homes along Li­ons Dri­ve and Der­rick Road in Cara­pichaima where they found the drugs hid­den in bed­rooms. The drugs weighed a to­tal of 30 ki­los. The oc­cu­pants of the hous­es, five men and two women, were de­tained and lat­er charged with mar­i­jua­na traf­fick­ing. Po­lice be­lieve the seizure will cause a ma­jor dent in the lo­cal mar­i­jua­na-traf­fick­ing.

In a raid on an­oth­er house in the area, po­lice found sev­er­al box­es of il­le­gal fire­crack­ers be­lieved to have been im­port­ed from Venezuela. The fire­crack­ers, com­mon­ly re­ferred to as "scratch bombs," were tak­en to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James where they will be dis­posed of. Po­lice al­so ar­rest­ed sev­en men on out­stand­ing war­rants for un­paid court fines. The ex­er­cise was led by Se­nior Supt De­o­dath Du­lalchan and in­clud­ed Sgts Mo­hammed, Su­san John and Cpls Smith and Ken Ali.