Colombian held as 481 kg of cannabis seized in Barbados stash house
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.
Barbadian law enforcement breached a stash house in Barbados on 2 August 2022
and arrested a Colombian national found there.[1]The Barbados Police Service
confirmed that the operation carried out on Tuesday 2 August 2022 resulted in a
drug seizure and the arrest of a suspect.[2]The Police Drug Squad carried out
the operation by executing a search warrant at an establishment.[2]A male
suspect was taken into custody in the find, and the Colombian was arrested at
the house while investigations continued.[2]
Officers seized 481 kilogrammes of marijuana at the stash house.[3]Police put
the street value of the 481 kilogrammes at TT$72,063,420, reported as over $72
million.[1]The TTPS release also gave the cannabis a Barbadian value of $21.2
million.[1]
Trinidad and Tobago intelligence officers had kept a suspected drug trafficker
based in Central Trinidad with regional and international connections under
surveillance since June 2020.[3]The suspect and another man then boarded a
flight to Barbados in late June 2022, and Trinidad police notified Barbadian law
enforcement and asked for help.[1]Police learned that a shipment of drugs
from Trinidad and Tobago had landed in Barbados on Friday 29 July 2022 and was
stored at the stash house before the raid.[1]
Photos and video
Seized packages of marijuana from the Barbados stash-house haul. Photo courtesy TTPS.Photo details
The Newsday article places the raid and seizure on July 29, while the TTPS release and the Barbados police confirmation date the stash-house breach to August 2; the report uses August 2.
The Newsday article says the suspects flew to Barbados in late June 2020, while the TTPS release says late June 2022; the report uses 2022.
The exact stash-house location in Barbados, such as a parish or address, was not published.
The arrested Colombian national was not named and no charges or court outcome were published.
The $72,063,420 valuation is stated in Trinidad and Tobago dollars; the $21.2 million Barbadian valuation lacks a spelled-out currency unit, so only the TT-dollar value is recorded in figures.
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.
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.
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.
