Barbados Coast Guard reports 5,895 lb of marijuana seized and 35 held in 2021
The Barbados Coast Guard said its patrols took 5,895 pounds (about 2.67 tonnes) of marijuana from the sea between 1 January and 13 October 2021, an 11 per cent rise on 2020. Twenty-eight non-nationals and seven Barbadian nationals were arrested over the maritime drug offences, alongside nine vessels.
The Barbados Coast Guard, the maritime unit of the Barbados Defence Force, said
it seized5,895 pounds of marijuana in the period from 1 January to 13 October
2021.[1]The force’s list for the period gives 5,895 pounds of marijuana, 183
pounds of cocaine, one firearm, one AR 15 rifle and nine vessels.[1]Twenty-eight non-nationals and seven nationals were arrested in connection with
the maritime drug offences during the period.[1]
The coast guard said the figures reflected an 11 per cent increase in marijuana
interdictions and a 50 per cent rise in cocaine interdictions compared with
2020.[1]It also put the rise in non-nationals arrested in connection with
these crimes at 467 per cent.[1]In 2020 the coast guard reported interdicting
5,277 pounds of marijuana and 162 pounds of cocaine, and arresting and charging
seven vessels, six non-nationals and seven nationals in connection with maritime
drug offences.[1]
The force attributed the rise partly to the region’s socioeconomic conditions
and local demand for the drugs.[1]Everyone taken into custody was screened
for COVID-19, and one positive case, a non-national, was found in 2021 and
isolated under the national policy.[1]
WIC News reported the same coast guard totals for the period, including the
5,895 pounds of marijuana and the 28 non-nationals and seven nationals held.[2]
Photos and video
Photograph published with the Barbados Today report, titled only 'BDF Barbados Defence Force Coast Guard'; no credit is given and no caption ties it to a particular interception.Photo details
WIC Newswicnews.comBarbados Defence Force seized 5,895 lbs Marijuana in 2021
Open questions the AI reported
The 5,895 pounds is a period total for 1 January to 13 October 2021, stated as a figure; no individual interception is described.
The figure of 35 arrested is the sum of the 28 non-nationals and seven nationals the force lists; the statement does not say whether the two groups are counted separately in all cases.
The statement gives no value estimate for the marijuana and no detail of charges or court outcomes.
The nine vessels are listed as vessels seized; the report does not say how many people were aboard or where each interception took place.
The published photograph is titled only 'BDF Barbados Defence Force Coast Guard' with no credit, so it is not confirmed to show a specific interception.
WIC News reproduces the same Defence Force statement and gives no independent verification of the totals.
The incident date is the statement's publication date, 16 October 2021, because the interceptions ran over months.
Natalie Jacinta Boyce, 43, pleaded not guilty in the District ‘B’ Magistrates’ Court to four cannabis charges involving about 15.2 kg of suspected cannabis. She was granted $45,000 bail and ordered to return to court on 23 February 2027.
Operation Trigger VII, a joint INTERPOL and CARICOM IMPACS firearms operation across 19 Caribbean countries on 24-30 September 2022, seized 2.5 tonnes of cannabis and led to 510 arrests. Strands included 500 kg seized in Jamaica, 1.8 tonnes and 17 arrests in Curaçao, and 3,664 cannabis plants destroyed in Barbados.
Barbadian police raided a stash house on 2 August 2022 and seized 481 kg of marijuana valued by Trinidad and Tobago police at TT$72,063,420, arresting a Colombian national. The raid followed a joint two-year surveillance operation after a suspected Central Trinidad trafficker and another man flew to Barbados and a drug shipment landed on 29 July.
Barbados officers searched the Guyana vessel Lady Sandra at Bridgetown Port on 10 September 2015 and seized 2 kg of cannabis along with 14.5 kg of cocaine. Two Guyanese crew members were arrested and jointly charged with eight cannabis and cocaine offences.
