Nine held as 3,150 pounds of marijuana seized off Eleuthera
U.S. and Bahamian agents arrested nine people and seized 3,150 pounds (about 1,429 kg) of marijuana after a go-fast boat was spotted dropping packages near Hatchet Point on Eleuthera Island. The Coast Guard valued the load at more than $3 million wholesale.
Nine people were arrested after U.S. and Bahamian authorities seized3,150
pounds (about 1,429 kg) of marijuana from a boat and a drop point near Hatchet
Point on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas.[1]Three of the nine were arrested
at the drop point, where a helicopter aircrew found 45 bales of marijuana
weighing about 1,500 pounds.[1]
The other six were arrested later, four on a second boat bringing fuel to the
stranded go-fast vessel and two more on the go-fast itself, where officers found
an additional 2,150 pounds of marijuana.[1]
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft crew spotted the 35-foot go-fast
vessel with two outboard engines dropping off packages near Hatchet Point.[1]The go-fast vessel headed for Nassau but ran out of fuel, and a second boat was
seen bringing it fuel before agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and the Bahamas Drug Enforcement Unit caught both.[2]The Coast
Guard, which gave the accounts, said the total load weighed 3,150 pounds and put
the wholesale value at more than $3 million.[2]The boat, the smugglers and
the marijuana were taken to Nassau.[1]The operation was run by Operation
Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, known as OPBAT, a joint task force of U.S. and
Bahamian agencies.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The Gleaner headline says 3,000 lbs while its text and the NBC 6 story give 3,150 pounds; the 3,150-pound figure is used.
The submitted NBC 6 story does not name Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos (OPBAT); the Gleaner account identifies it as the task force behind the seizure.
The Gleaner says four suspects were arrested on the refuelling boat and two aboard the go-fast vessel, while the NBC 6 story counts six arrests after the go-fast was caught; both accounts give nine in total.
No charges, court outcome or names of the nine people arrested were reported in either account.
The 3,150 pounds is converted to about 1,429 kg; no separate metric weighing was published.
The map point is the Hatchet Point locality on Eleuthera Island, not the exact spot where the bales were dropped.
The Gleaner account says the vessel was seized on the Tuesday, and NBC 6 places the seizure on the Thursday before its 25 October publication; the Thursday is used as the incident date.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Jamaica Gleaner (Caribbean Media Corporation): A Bahamas Drug Enforcement Unit officer said at the time that the go-fast vessel and a smaller load had been seized the previous Tuesday and that five Bahamian men were held with it.
The Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a go-fast boat 38 nautical miles southwest of Mars Bay, Andros, on 4 May 2026 and seized 2,576 pounds (1,168 kg) of hydroponic cannabis. Two Bahamian men, aged 37 and 53, were arrested and police estimated the haul at $6.4 million.
Bahamian Drug Enforcement Unit and Customs officers intercepted a 25-28ft go-fast vessel at a marina in the Lucaya area of Grand Bahama around noon on 26 February 2025 and found about 500 pounds of suspected marijuana. Two Bahamian men from New Providence, aged 35 and 38, were arrested, and police estimated the street value at $1.5 million.
Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force officers seized cannabis sativa worth an estimated US$2.83 million in two interceptions of migrant vessels at Bird Rock and Jones Cay on Providenciales on 16 and 17 August 2024. Fifty-six migrants were detained in the two cannabis-related landings, and police said the investigation was continuing.
Officers from the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Bahamas Customs and the Department of Immigration seized suspected marijuana worth an estimated $131,000 at Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau on 26 October 2023. The drugs, packed in vacuum-sealed bags, had been hidden inside three boxes of furniture shipped through a local courier company, and no arrests were made.
