Fifteen people were arrested in New Providence, Eleuthera and Bimini yesterday in police operation "Bahama Tidal Wave," which started at 2 a.m.
By Anthony CapronThe arrests resulted from search warrants being executed on the premises of several major drug trafficking organisations in The Bahamas.
Also yesterday, a 17-count indictment filed in the U.S. District Court of South Florida against 21 members of a Bahamian organisation was unsealed by United States Attorney General John Ashcroft at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC. Mr Ashcroft named the two Bahamian leaders of the organisation, at the same time announcing the indictment and arrest of Colombian drug trafficker Elias Cobos-Munoz, reputedly the head of one of the largest drug trafficking and drug transportation organisations based in Colombia and Jamaica.
The Grand Jury indictment from count one through 17 charges the two Bahamian leaders and the 19 members of the organisation with conspiracy to and importing cocaine and marijuana into the United States.
The indictments and arrests came as a result of Operation Manatee in the case of Cobos-Munoz and Operation Double talk for the Bahamian organisation. In addition to the indictments filed in Florida, an indictment was returned on Feb. 5 by a federal grand jury in the District of Colombia charging a Bahamian pilot for the Cobos organisation, with trafficking drugs, flying bulk loads of cocaine from Colombia to Jamaica and The Bahamas for delivery to the United States.
"This series of indictments and related arrests represents the successful culmination of DEA's Caribbean Initiative," said the attorney general. He called it a multi-faceted attack on all levels of certain major trafficking organisations operating in the Caribbean corridor.
The 29 month?long international Organised Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation into cocaine and marijuana trafficking was conducted by the DEA and other American law enforcement, working with partners in six foreign countries including The Bahamas, Colombia, Canada, Jamaica, Panama and the United Kingdom.
Commissioner of Police Paul Farquharson said the objective of the operation was to "disrupt the illicit trafficking of contraband being smuggled from Colombia to Jamaica and through The Bahamas enroute to the United States of America and Canada.
Mr Farquharson said from January 2003 to the present the drug trafficking activities of five major organisations have been successfully investigated, with massive amounts of cocaine and marijuana being seized.
"Additionally, officers also seized $825,432 cash in suspected proceeds of dangerous drugs," he said, noting that 19 people have been charged before the courts, with two additional persons being sought.
DEA administrator Karen Tandy called drug traffickers "modern day Pirates of the Caribbean" who prey on the vulnerable, plunder for profit, and intimidate through violence. She said the dismantled trafficking organisations were responsible for distributing three metric tons of cocaine in the US every month, amounting to at least 10 to 12 per cent of the US supply.
"We are seeking extradition of these alleged criminals to the United States so that they will answer to the courts in the same land where they profited from poisoning America's children," she said.
