Bahamian police arrested nine suspects after 1,220 pounds (about 553 kg) of marijuana was found on Andros Island and flown to Nassau.[1] A joint task force from Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, known as OPBAT, seized the marijuana in the vicinity of Andros Island.[1] The Coast Guard put the wholesale value of the haul at an estimated $1.1 million.[1]

The task force included the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Bahamas Drug Enforcement Unit and the Royal Bahamas Police Force.[1] A Coast Guard aircrew stationed at the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center, the U.S. Navy’s AUTEC facility on Andros, spotted the stash from an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter.[1] The aircrew guided investigators to a remote site in the island’s mangroves.[1] The Jayhawk crew then hoisted the marijuana and carried it to Bahamian law enforcement in Nassau, on New Providence Island.[1] The seizure took place on 28 August 2013, a Wednesday.[2]

Commander Mark Driver, the Coast Guard’s OPBAT director, said the seizure prevented nearly $1.1 million of illegal narcotics from harming Bahamian citizens or crossing international borders.[1] OPBAT is a partnership of the DEA, the Coast Guard and the government of the Bahamas against drug smuggling to and from the Bahamas.[1]