JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, July 14, 2025

$12B cocaine seizure at Port of Kingston

by

910 days ago
20230116
The 50 duffel bags containing a total of 1,500 kilogrammes of cocaine valued at over Jca$12 billion seized at the Kingston Freeport Terminal on Saturday.

The 50 duffel bags containing a total of 1,500 kilogrammes of cocaine valued at over Jca$12 billion seized at the Kingston Freeport Terminal on Saturday.

Jamaica Observer

KINGSTON­—On­go­ing po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tions have seen the val­ue of a ma­jor co­caine bust on Sat­ur­day bal­loon­ing to over $12 bil­lion.

The po­lice have now said that the mas­sive seizure made at the Kingston Freeport Ter­mi­nal on Sat­ur­day morn­ing to­talled over 1,500 kilo­grammes with an es­ti­mat­ed street val­ue of ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$80 mil­lion (over $12 bil­lion).

Pre­lim­i­nary po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tions had es­ti­mat­ed the drugs to weigh over 1,200 kilo­grammes with a val­ue of be­tween ap­prox­i­mate­ly $7 bil­lion and $9 bil­lion.

A re­li­able po­lice source told the Ja­maica Ob­serv­er that the con­tra­band, which was found con­cealed among the car­go of a ves­sel which ar­rived from Colom­bia on Fri­day, rep­re­sents “one of the largest co­caine busts in Ja­maica.”

“The drugs were found in 50 duf­fel bags…fol­low­ing a search of over 30 con­tain­ers,” the po­lice source said.

The source said the search, which be­gan about 10 am on Fri­day, was com­plet­ed Sat­ur­day af­ter­noon. It is part of a joint op­er­a­tion among the Ja­maica Con­stab­u­lary Force (JCF) Nar­cotics Di­vi­sion, the Ja­maica De­fence Force (JDF) and Ja­maica Cus­toms Agency (JCA).

“The search has con­clud­ed but the po­lice are still pro­cess­ing the scene,” the source said.

Ac­cord­ing to a JCF me­dia re­lease, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the po­lice and Ja­maica Cus­toms have in­di­cat­ed that the op­er­a­tion on the port will con­tin­ue for an ex­tend­ed pe­ri­od to en­sure the in­tegri­ty of items ar­riv­ing at the port.

This lat­est find is a few kilo­grammes less than the 1,589 kilo­grammes of drugs un­cov­ered in the coun­try in Au­gust 2002.

Up to press time, po­lice say no one had been ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with the find.

In Sep­tem­ber last year, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1,100 pounds of co­caine with an es­ti­mat­ed street val­ue of US$25 mil­lion (J$3.7 bil­lion) was found in ten large trav­el bags at the Ian Flem­ing In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port in St Mary. (Ja­maica Ob­serv­er)

CrimeDrugsInstagram


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored