Four arrested as Bermuda container search yields $1.9m of cannabis
Bermuda police and HM Customs arrested four people after a joint operation on 15 March 2023 in which warrants were executed at a Hamilton business and homes in Devonshire and Pembroke, and a shipping container was seized and searched. Police valued the cannabis found in the container at $1.9 million and said the drugs unit was continuing to investigate.
Bermuda police and HM Customs ran a joint operation on 15 March 2023.[1]Four
people were arrested in the operation.[1]Officers from the Bermuda Police
Service drugs unit, with the financial crime unit and the tactical division,
executed warrants at a business in the City of Hamilton and at homes in
Devonshire and Pembroke.[2]A shipping container was seized during the
operation.[1]
A search of the container found several packages of suspected cannabis, which
police valued at $1.9 million in Bermuda dollars.[1]An Island Construction
truck was hired to take the container to a secure location for the search.[2]Police said nobody associated with Island Construction was arrested or
interviewed over the operation.[2]
Detective Superintendent Sherwin Joseph, who leads the crime division, said the
operation had disrupted what he called a well-organised crime group in Bermuda
and dealt a severe blow to its established illegal importation pipeline.[2]Joseph thanked HM Customs for its assistance.[2]He said the drugs unit would
continue an investigation at a critical stage and that no further information
would be given at the time.[2]
Photos and video
Suspected cannabis seized in a major police operation, in a police photograph supplied to The Royal Gazette. Photo: SuppliedPhoto details
No weight was published for the cannabis found in the container, so no kilograms figure is recorded.
The four arrested people were not named and no charges, court dates or outcomes were reported.
The sources name no operation codename for this case.
The Royal Gazette article of 17 March 2023 gives no separate date; 15 March 2023 comes from the police statement reproduced by Bernews.
The $1.9 million is the police's street-value estimate for suspected cannabis, not a measured weight or price.
The Royal Gazette compares the seizure to earlier operations, including Operation Mortar in October 2022, a February 2023 raid and August 2022 raids; those are separate events not covered here.
Both accounts rest on the same Bermuda Police Service statement, so they are not independent reporting.
The exact address of the Hamilton business was not published; the coordinates are for the City of Hamilton.
Yemariam Teshome, 21, of Ontario, pleaded not guilty in Bermuda's Supreme Court to conspiring to import more than $1 million of cannabis into the island between an unknown date and 21 June 2026, and to possessing it with intent to supply. A judge set a mention for 11 December and a fixed trial date of 15 February.
Ty Lawes was sentenced to six years in Bermuda's Supreme Court on 7 October 2026 for importing 16,855.4 grams of cannabis resin through LF Wade International Airport on 20 July 2023, when he was 17. The judge said the sentence would have exceeded ten years had he committed the offence as an adult, even with a guilty plea.
Arrested 1Charged 1Cannabis 16.8554 kgPrison 6 years
Bermuda police and HM Customs intercepted a shipment containing about 120 pounds of cannabis, worth an estimated $5 million, and arrested three suspects when warrants were executed in Pembroke and St George's on 24 October 2022. The joint operation, named Operation Minotaur, was described by police as a significant seizure, and the police Drugs Unit said its investigation was continuing.
Bermuda police and HM Customs arrested four people in Operation Mizar after customs intercepted a shipment containing about 58 pounds of cannabis, valued by police at $1.2 million. Officers searched three residences in Warwick, and the Drugs Unit said it was continuing to investigate.
