9,027 pounds of ganja seized in yam boxes at Kingston port
Police found 9,027 pounds (about 4.1 tonnes) of ganja packed with yams in 248 export boxes at the Gordon Cay container terminal in Kingston on 5 January 2003. The load, bound for New York and New Jersey, was spotted because the boxes weighed 10 pounds over the yam standard; no arrests were made.
🇯🇲 Gordon Cay container terminal, Kingston · Jamaica
Police seized9,027 pounds (about 4.1 tonnes) of ganja hidden in export boxes of yams
at the Gordon Cay container terminal in Kingston on 5 January 2003.[1]The Contraband
Enforcement Team found the drug during routine checks of containers waiting to be loaded
onto ships bound for the United States.[1]
The ganja was packed in cardboard cartons marked “Produce of Jamaica” alongside genuine
yam cartons labelled “Product of Jamaica”, 248 boxes in all.[1]Police were alerted by the
weight: an export box of yams standardly weighs 45 pounds, but these weighed 55
pounds.[1]The shipment was destined for New York and New Jersey.[1]
The paper put the street value at $1.4 billion.[1]No arrests had been made, though the head
of the narcotics police, Senior Superintendent Carl Williams, said officers were following
several leads.[1]Williams said a US-side discovery of the load would have hurt Jamaica’s yam
exports, which at their peak reached over US$12 million a year.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Cannabis
4.0946 t
Agency type
Police
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis (4.0946 t)
Activity
Smuggling
Setting
Port or sea
Case stage
Under investigation
Route
Jamaica → New York, United States, New Jersey, United States
Police and the JDF Coast Guard seized over 2,000 pounds of ganja from a canoe near Alligator Pond, St Elizabeth on March 3. Four men on board were charged with possession, dealing, trafficking and export-related ganja offences.
The Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard intercepted a vessel southwest of Long Bay Beach, Manchester, seizing over 2,286 pounds of marijuana valued at about $45 million. Four people were detained and handed over with the drugs to the police narcotics division for processing.
Police intercepted two cars on the Pamphret main road in St Thomas on September 26, 2025, seizing 1,600 pounds of compressed ganja in 33 bags. Two men were arrested and charged with possession, dealing, export-preparation and trafficking offences.
Three men are being prosecuted over 1,890 pounds (about 857 kg) of compressed ganja that police said they were taking to a Jamaican port on 15 August 2025. Two were granted $1 million bail, the third stayed in lockup, and the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court set 6 January 2026 for case management.
