About 1 tonne of marijuana seized from speedboat off Maisí; 3 held
Cuban border guards seized around a tonne of marijuana from a speedboat intercepted off Maisí, Guantánamo, detaining its three Bahamian crew. Authorities said the shipment was moving through the Windward Passage toward the Bahamas and the United States market.
🇨🇺 Eight miles northeast of Punta del Fraile, off Maisí, Guantánamo · Cuba
Cuba’s Border Guard Troops captured a speedboat carrying around a tonne of
marijuana off the island’s eastern coast.[1][2]The boat’s three crew members
were Bahamians detained in waters near the municipality of Maisí in eastern
Guantánamo province.[1][2]
A television news report placed the interception eight miles northeast of Punta
del Fraile.[1]The official account said the international trafficking
operation intended to move the shipment through the narrow Windward Passage
between Cuba and Hispaniola toward the Bahamas and onward to the United States
market.[3][2]
Prensa Latina described the case as the second drug speedboat captured in that
area in recent months and the fourth major marijuana-trafficking operation
thwarted in the Windward Passage by Cuban authorities since May.[1][2]Cuba
maintains an official zero-tolerance policy toward attempts to use its air and
maritime space for the illegal drug trade.[3][2]
Photos and video
The captured speedboat laden with marijuana. Photo: Canal CaribePhoto details
A court in Las Tunas sentenced a man to 15 years in prison in Case 115 of 2026 for trafficking marijuana with cocaine and synthetic cannabinoids in the Mexico neighborhood. Electronic surveillance showed systematic selling, and the court added loss of public rights, confiscation and a travel ban under Cuba's Penal Code.
The Holguín provincial court sentenced an unnamed repeat offender to 14 years in prison on 28 April 2026 for cultivating and selling marijuana at Jagüeyes de Puerto Rico, Banes, where police had seized 429 plants weighing 2.42 kg and 11,280 pesos on his arrest in May 2025. Civil rights were revoked with a 14-year travel ban and cash confiscated.
Cuban Border Guard Troops and the US Coast Guard seized 17 containers holding 340.7 kilograms of marijuana off Banes, Holguín province, after a tip from Miami. US authorities detained the two people who fled in the speedboat, and Cuban border troops took over the investigation.
Cuba's Border Guard Troops seized 2,349 kilograms of marijuana in two October 2020 operations off the island's eastern coast. Officers detained two Bahamians and a Jamaican in the 16 October interception after an earlier crew escaped on 9 October.
