BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MEMBERS of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force Anti-Narcotics Unit early this morning (Sept. 15) destroyed a large quantity of cocaine seized just over two weeks ago from aboard a UK-registered vessel captained and owned by a native of St. Lucia.
The cocaine, along with a small quantity of marijuana, was destroyed by fire at a location just outside of Basseterre in the presence of a number of representatives from local media houses.
Everyone, including the reporters, members of the Anti-Narcotics Unit who were smashing the hardened blocks of cocaine into powdered form, had donned white protective gear, gloves and nose and mouth masks as well as eye protectors to prevent contamination of the drug.
The entire destruction process took less than two hours and the Police Press and Public Relations Officer, Inspector Lyndon David, told reporters that a significant amount of cocaine was retained for training purposes.
“We have retained two packets of all the drugs that we have confiscated from the persons who brought them into our country, and they will be used for training purposes in terms of our law enforcement bodies…the Police, Customs and the Defence Force.
“Over there at the burning site are the others. So we just want to let the general public know that we are in keeping with all the necessary that we have to in order to ensure we are in keeping drugs out of our country and keeping our country safe.”
Inspector David insinuated that one of the reasons for extending invitation to reporters was to demonstrate that transparency exists in the Police Force.
“We know that there are many persons who might be thinking of many things, but you the media being here this morning is a clear demonstration that we are being transparent in whatever we are doing in terms of disposing of narcotic drugs that we would have seized or confiscated during our period of operations.”
He reiterated the purpose of retaining the two packages of cocaine and noted that it would be used in many areas.
“We have for drug identification for recruits and even seasoned police officers…one or two may just go to the Drug Unit and they might not have seen cocaine before. And we also have our K-9 Unit and it will be used to keep our canines upbeat in terms of identification of cocaine. So, we want our officers, including the canine, totally equipped with the necessary ways in which they can identify cocaine.”
Sergeant Travis Rogers, Head of the Anti-Narcotics Unit, gave reporters a detailed account of how the drugs were packaged and from whence the police suspected their origin.
He noted that the cocaine was waterproofed; for each package was first wrapped in plastic and then in a thick layer of rubber.
Rogers explained that “generally you would find South American cocaine that is transported by air and dumped in the sea”. This system, he added, is whereby the recipients would be aboard a vessel and would retrieve the dumped cocaine that stays afloat because it was waterproofed and designed to float.
He also explained that the cocaine was loaded in St. Lucia and was destined for the British Virgin Islands.
“Countries in the Caribbean, especially the Eastern Caribbean, do not produce cocaine…they may exchange marijuana for cocaine and this possibly could have been one of those ventures,” he added.
In the past, cocaine and other illegal drugs were destroyed in Conaree but, according to Rogers, that location is no longer in use because since it had “turned into a landfill fire cannot be carried out on the facility”.
On Saturday (Sept. 1), two St. Lucians were caught in the Federation’s territorial waters aboard a yacht carrying 134.108 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of EC$11,816.255.00.
The two men 56-year-old Vincent Clerice and Nixon Alexander (42), both of Marigot, St. Lucia, were charged with possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to supply to another and importation of cocaine into the Federation.
Last week they appeared before Her Worship Josephine Mallalieu-Webbe at the Basseterre Magistrate’s Court and while all charges against Alexander were withdrawn and he was deported to his country of birth, Clerice, captain and owner of the vessel, pleaded guilty to all three charges.
He was however convicted for importation of cocaine into the Federation and sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour.
Clerice was also fined EC$1M to be paid in nine months and, if in default, will have to serve an additional four-year term in prison with hard labour.
The Chief Magistrate also ordered that the vessel involved in the transshipment of the illicit drugs be forfeited to the Crown and be advertised in the local media for sale at a public auction.
