Last Tues­day, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro agreed with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar that tar­get­ed US strikes on sev­er­al al­leged drug-smug­gling ves­sels off the coast of Venezuela in re­cent weeks have made a “mea­sur­able im­pact” on the lo­cal drug trade, trig­ger­ing a sharp rise in the price of il­lic­it nar­cotics.

Gue­var­ro at­trib­uted the in­crease to drug short­ages in the coun­try.

As of No­vem­ber 13, the US had con­duct­ed 20 strikes on al­leged drug boats in in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ters, killing at least 80 peo­ple.

In this ex­clu­sive re­port, the Guardian Me­dia In­ves­ti­ga­tions Desk ob­tained a 2024 po­lice dossier that pegged mar­ket prices for il­le­gal drugs at the time.

Us­ing the po­lice in­tel­li­gence re­port as a base­line, Guardian Me­dia spoke to in­dus­try ex­perts to map the in­crease in nar­cotics prices.

SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

In 2024, T&T ex­pe­ri­enced a sub­stan­tial in­crease in mar­i­jua­na im­por­ta­tion.

On av­er­age, 12 tonnes of the il­le­gal drug were smug­gled in­to the coun­try every week, de­spite de­crim­i­nal­i­sa­tion six years ear­li­er.

This find­ing came from the 2024 Transna­tion­al Or­gan­ised Crime Unit T&T (TOCU) re­port, which ex­am­ined pric­ing, trends and pat­terns in drug and firearms traf­fick­ing.

The 58-page re­port, pre­pared by TOCU’s Strate­gic In­tel­li­gence Sec­tion, pro­vid­ed re­search and da­ta analy­sis on the eco­nom­ic and op­er­a­tional fac­tors in­flu­enc­ing the pric­ing of il­lic­it drugs and weapons. The method­ol­o­gy in­clud­ed ob­ser­va­tions, in­ter­views and field ex­per­i­ments.

TOCU—an elite unit of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS)—has a his­to­ry of col­lab­o­rat­ing with US agen­cies.

The re­port stat­ed that Colom­bian and Venezue­lan transna­tion­al crim­i­nal or­gan­i­sa­tions con­tin­ue to dom­i­nate T&T’s tran­ship­ment mar­ket, us­ing ad­vanced com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems and var­ied trans­port routes. Drugs are moved via pirogues and fast ves­sels.

Transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime in T&T, it said, is a dy­nam­ic land­scape in which crime groups col­lab­o­rate ex­ten­sive­ly across bor­ders.

“The Venezue­lan and Colom­bian car­tels have tak­en root in T&T due to up­heavals in Venezuela, lever­ag­ing the in­sta­bil­i­ty to con­duct il­lic­it ac­tiv­i­ties. They are heav­i­ly in­volved in traf­fick­ing co­caine and mar­i­jua­na, of­ten us­ing pri­vate air­craft to drop nar­cotics in coastal re­gions for fur­ther dis­tri­b­u­tion. Lo­cal crim­i­nal groups col­lab­o­rate close­ly, aid­ing in stor­age and re­gion­al/in­ter­na­tion­al trans­porta­tion,” the re­port said.

A con­cern­ing trend, the re­port added, is that car­tels have been ex­pand­ing the drug trade by us­ing lo­cal boats to im­port nar­cotics, cre­at­ing con­flicts with es­tab­lished lo­cal traf­fick­ers.

“More­over, the car­tels are in­fil­trat­ing le­git­i­mate busi­ness­es—par­tic­u­lar­ly bars and gro­ceries—to laun­der their ill-got­ten gains. This al­lows them to blend il­lic­it prof­its with le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty, com­pli­cat­ing law en­force­ment ef­forts.”

Mar­i­jua­na im­ports and pric­ing

The re­port found that T&T’s mar­i­jua­na trade was ex­pe­ri­enc­ing “sub­stan­tial growth.”

“Ob­ser­va­tions re­veal a con­sis­tent in­crease in im­ports, av­er­ag­ing around 12 tonnes per week. These im­ports orig­i­nate from Venezuela, ar­riv­ing via pirogues and Cari­com car­go ves­sels through le­git­i­mate ports.”

Con­trolled pre­scrip­tion drugs (CPDs) al­so re­main a con­cern due to fluc­tu­at­ing abuse lev­els and il­le­gal im­por­ta­tion.

High-qual­i­ty strains from North Amer­i­ca—es­pe­cial­ly those with high THC con­tent—are in­creas­ing­ly in de­mand. THC lev­els in hy­brid strains range from 30–50 per cent com­pared to the av­er­age 14 per cent found in reg­u­lar mar­i­jua­na.

The re­tail price of these hy­brids reach­es $250 per gramme.

There is al­so sus­tained de­mand for “spe­cial” seeds priced at $200–$500 each, as more in­di­vid­u­als grow mar­i­jua­na at home with­in the le­gal lim­it.

“There is a con­cern­ing trend of clan­des­tine im­por­ta­tion of seeds from North Amer­i­ca and Cana­da, with re­ports of coun­ter­feit seeds—lo­cal seeds pack­aged and sold as im­port­ed us­ing on­line-bought la­bels,” the re­port stat­ed.

Mar­i­jua­na seeds fall in­to three cat­e­gories: fem­i­nised, au­to-flow­er­ing and med­i­c­i­nal.

Gan­ja ac­tivist Quin­lin Achat said some of TOCU’s val­u­a­tions ap­peared in­flat­ed.

“No smok­er would buy a pound of Loud for $113,500 re­tail. Who’s buy­ing that? That sounds ridicu­lous,” she said. “If prices reach that high, men would stop smok­ing weed and start grow­ing their own.”

Achat ad­mit­ted the price of Creepy has in­creased, adding that if the trend con­tin­ues, users may switch to cheap­er strains or turn to al­co­hol.

BOX: TOCU’s 2024 Mar­i­jua­na Whole­sale Val­u­a­tions (TT$)

Type of Nar­cot­ic 1 lb 1 kg

Lo­cal mar­i­jua­na $2,500 $5,500

Lo­cal Kush mar­i­jua­na $2,500 $5,500

Lo­cal (Jam and Pop­corn) $2,500 $5,500

Ja­maican (Jam Jam–Brown) $3,500 $7,500

Vin­cy Kush $3,500 $7,500

Hy­dro lo­cal $12,000 $26,400

Creepy $13,000 $30,000

Kush (im­port­ed) — Yel­low/lemon; white di­a­mond; white wid­ow; OG Kush; AK47; kamikaze; ore­os; sug­ar cane deluxe; peanut but­ter breath; pur­ple and pink punch; R MAC 1; go­ril­la glue 4 (GG4); loud $60,000

BOX:Con­densed Nar­cotics Price Ta­ble

Type Unit Re­tail

Lo­cal mar­i­jua­na / Kush / Jam & Pop­corn 1g $13,605

Ja­maican Jam Jam (Brown) 1g $15,890

Vin­cy Kush 1g $22,700

Hy­dro (lo­cal) 1g $40,860

Colom­bian Creepy 1g $49,885

Kush (yel­low/lemon) 1g $68,025

Pre­mi­um strains (White Di­a­mond, White Wid­ow, OG Kush, AK47, Ore­os, Peanut But­ter Breath, Pur­ple/Pink Punch, Go­ril­la Glue 4, Loud)

Cost­ing Co­caine

In 2024, there was a sur­plus of co­caine on the mar­ket.

The re­port stat­ed that whole­sale prices dropped from US$8,000 to US$4,000 per kilo­gramme.

De­spite a de­cline in lo­cal re­tail sales, siz­able quan­ti­ties of co­caine con­tin­ue to be im­port­ed from Venezuela and Colom­bia.

“Co­caine avail­abil­i­ty re­mains steady, large­ly sourced from the South Amer­i­can re­gion for tran­ship­ment to Eu­rope and oth­er des­ti­na­tions via the transat­lantic route,” the re­port said.

A “shift in im­port sources”—name­ly greater di­rect sup­ply from Colom­bia—was at­trib­uted to the grow­ing in­flu­ence of the Colom­bian car­tel op­er­at­ing sub­tly in T&T. Pre­vi­ous­ly, Venezue­lan car­tels played the dom­i­nant role.

Co­caine is ex­port­ed us­ing pirogues, go-fast ves­sels, Cari­com car­go ves­sels through sanc­tioned ports, in­ter­na­tion­al freighters, couri­er ser­vices and mail.

Whole­sale:

A kilo­gramme of un­cut co­caine: $35,000–$40,000

One kilo­gramme (un­cut) can pro­duce three kilo­grammes of crack, cut, cooked or stamped co­caine

Re­tail:

One ounce: $900 → pro­duces 120 rocks at $25

One kilo­gramme → 4,224 rocks

Net prof­it per ounce: $2,100

New re­tail prices emerg­ing

A se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer, speak­ing anony­mous­ly, said the re­cent in­crease in co­caine prices was due to height­ened risks from US at­tacks on ves­sels.

While of­fi­cers are still re­cal­cu­lat­ing re­tail prices, he said co­caine has risen from US$4,500 to be­tween US$6,500 per kilo­gramme.

Cannabis pol­i­cy spe­cial­ist Mar­cus Ramkissoon, crim­i­nol­o­gist Dau­rius Figueira and Achat of­fered their per­spec­tives.

Ramkissoon said prices for most mar­i­jua­na strains have re­mained steady. Creepy—T&T’s most pop­u­lar strain—re­tails at $5,000 a pound when abun­dant. Twice per year, es­pe­cial­ly near Christ­mas, Creepy be­comes scarce and prices can reach $15,000 a pound.

“What we are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing now is drought prices. From my feed­back on the ground, there has been no short­age due to US in­ter­dic­tion.”

With US mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions ex­pect­ed to in­ten­si­fy, Ramkissoon said sup­pli­ers may be­gin hoard­ing cannabis and sell­ing at black-mar­ket prices if sup­ply is threat­ened.

An­oth­er strain, Loud, whole­sales at $20,000 per pound and re­tails at $30,000 for 16 ounces. Prices have re­mained con­stant.

Hy­dro lo­cal—grown both out­doors and in­doors—sells for:

$800 per ounce re­tail (out­door)

$12,000 per pound (out­door)

$30,000 per pound (in­door)

“These prices have not changed,” Ramkissoon said. “Re­mem­ber, TTPS checks re­tail per gramme, so their as­sess­ments may dif­fer.”

Gan­ja war

Figueira of­fered a dif­fer­ent view, say­ing he does not be­lieve US airstrikes have caused prices to sky­rock­et.

He said es­ca­lat­ing con­flict in Colom­bia is dri­ving lo­cal price in­creas­es.

Colom­bians and Mex­i­cans, he said, con­trol T&T’s mar­i­jua­na mar­ket. Colom­bians use mid­dle­men; Mex­i­cans ne­go­ti­ate di­rect­ly.

“Peo­ple are get­ting killed again for gan­ja.”

He said gan­ja-re­lat­ed mur­ders, long dor­mant, have re-emerged:

“Now the gan­ja war has restart­ed… it’s spread­ing from Cunu­pia to Bar­rack­pore. Cunu­pia was a fo­cal point the last time around. What I’m watch­ing is the amount of mur­ders there. It’s send­ing a mes­sage that it’s get­ting hot.”

Firearms and or­gan­ised crime

The re­port al­so ad­dressed firearm traf­fick­ing net­works im­port­ing large quan­ti­ties of weapons through couri­er com­pa­nies and con­tain­er ship­ments.

“The preva­lence of Venezue­lan and Colom­bian car­tels now based in Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ues to dri­ve the de­mand for firearms, as these car­tels and lo­cal drug traf­fick­ers com­pete for turf,” it stat­ed.

TOCU ac­knowl­edged T&T’s ef­fec­tive in­tel­li­gence ap­pa­ra­tus but not­ed short­com­ings in in­tel­li­gence-led in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

“Cur­rent prac­tices em­pha­sise seizure and me­dia at­ten­tion, of­fer­ing short-term vis­i­bil­i­ty but min­i­mal im­pact on dis­man­tling these op­er­a­tions. A spe­cialised In­ves­tiga­tive Task Force is rec­om­mend­ed.”

Last week, Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed Gue­var­ro on What­sApp re­quest­ing the cur­rent buy­ing rate of co­caine and mar­i­jua­na in T&T. He has not yet re­spond­ed.

BOX 2: TTPS Sta­tis­tics

Nar­cotics mat­ters:

2023: 397 re­ports

2024: 275 re­ports

Jan–Sept 2025: 298 re­ports

Firearms/am­mu­ni­tion pos­ses­sion:

2023: 1,265 re­ports

2024: 1,184 re­ports

Jan–Sept 2025: 968 re­ports

BOX 3: Ma­jor TTPS Drug Seizures (Jan–Nov 2025)

Be­tween Jan­u­ary and ear­ly No­vem­ber, the TTPS seized and de­stroyed more than $750 mil­lion worth of nar­cotics as part of its in­ten­si­fied fo­cus on dis­man­tling traf­fick­ing net­works.

Among the ma­jor seizures were:

March:

$250m in co­caine on ves­sel bound for St Mar­tin

$10m in mar­i­jua­na in La Hor­quet­ta

April: $136m in mar­i­jua­na on Mara­cas coast

Ju­ly: $4.5m in co­caine in hair prod­ucts in South

Au­gust:

$7.5m in mar­i­jua­na in Cen­tral tran­sit shed

$20.8m in co­caine and cannabis in Glen­coe/Diego Mar­tin

Sep­tem­ber:

$29m in mar­i­jua­na in fish­ing ves­sel off Point Fortin

$11.9m in mar­i­jua­na in Trinci­ty

Oc­to­ber: $314m in Colom­bian mar­i­jua­na and co­caine in Pa­lo Seco

No­vem­ber:

$19m in drugs seized dur­ing an­ti-crime op­er­a­tions

$29m in cannabis in­ter­cept­ed on fish­ing ves­sel from Venezuela