Agents with the U.S. Drug En­force­ment Ad­min­is­tra­tion (DEA) of­fice at the U.S. Em­bassy as­sist­ed the Trinidad and To­ba­go Transna­tion­al Or­ga­nized Crime Unit (TOCU) in an in­ves­ti­ga­tion which cul­mi­nat­ed in the ar­rest of Shurlan Gup­py on Tues­day, who is charged with traf­fick­ing hero­in and co­caine val­ued at US$1 mil­lion to the Unit­ed States. He is charged in the Unit­ed States Dis­trict Court for the East­ern Dis­trict of Penn­syl­va­nia, and will be ex­tra­dit­ed to Penn­syl­va­nia to face charges. Dur­ing the ear­ly morn­ing ex­e­cu­tion of the ar­rest war­rant, agents found a firearm and one kilo­gram of co­caine in the sus­pect’s res­i­dence.

U.S. Am­bas­sador Can­dace Bond said of the ar­rest, “I am proud of the painstak­ing work the U.S. Em­bassy’s DEA agents do every sin­gle day to help end drug traf­fick­ing and to strength­en cit­i­zen se­cu­ri­ty for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. DEA agents work­ing close­ly with mem­bers of Trinidad and To­ba­go law en­force­ment act as a force mul­ti­pli­er. This ar­rest, fol­low­ing months of in­ves­ti­ga­tion and close col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween DEA, the Unit­ed States Dis­trict Court for the East­ern Dis­trict of Penn­syl­va­nia, and Trinidad and To­ba­go’s TOCU, is an­oth­er ster­ling ex­am­ple of our close part­ner­ship, and yet more ev­i­dence that the Unit­ed States is Trinidad and To­ba­go’s most re­li­able friend and part­ner in the world.”

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds said, “U.S. DEA agents in Philadel­phia and at the U.S. Em­bassy start­ed work­ing on this case with us in 2020, cul­mi­nat­ing in this ma­jor ar­rest and ex­tra­di­tion or­der. I am grat­i­fied that our ex­cel­lent co­op­er­a­tion has led to this ar­rest. We count on our Amer­i­can part­ners in law en­force­ment to as­sist us in mak­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go safer for our com­mu­ni­ties.”