BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Police Force Press and Public Relations Office has informed that marijuana with a street value of $40M has been removed from the Federation’s streets as part of Operation Safe Streets.
That Office has indicated that as at today (Oct 5), some 67,000 plants have been uprooted and taken into police custody and have a combined wholesale value of approximately EC$13.4M.
A component of Operation Safe Streets is the eradication of illicit drugs and, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Hilroy Brandy, there is a proven link between drugs and other criminal activities.
Speaking with SKNVibes, the DCP explained that one of the reasons for the unrelenting fight against the use, production and supply of illegal drugs is the direct link between drugs and guns, with the latter being used to perpetrate violent crime.
“One of the things we have seen that we think is fueling some of these murders is drugs; they are drug-related. They are fighting for turf over drugs, they are fighting because of who is stealing whose drugs and shooting one another. Where there are drugs, there are guns.”
DCP Brandy told this publication that based on the number of drugs seized, he is convinced that there is an overseas market to which some of these items are transported.
“The amount of drugs that the police are seizing from these fields, it has to be that there is some market out there other than St. Kitts-Nevis, because I cannot see all of these drugs being consumed here in St. Kitts and Nevis.”
The Police Force’s Second-in-Command also indicated that as part of Operation Safe Streets, a number of vessels are actively involved in combing the Federation’s waters and are engaged in the searching of other vessels to ensure they are not transporting contraband.
“And it is not just the police searching and stopping on the streets and doing the eradication. We have assets on the ocean. We have the Ardent, we have the Stalwart, we have Oualie, and we have a Coastguard (vessel) from Barbados here patrolling the waters, stop and search vessels to make sure what they are carrying is legal, to see if they are carrying weapons and or drugs.”
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