25,000 marijuana plants uprooted in St Kitts and Nevis Safe Streets drive
In the fourth day of Operation Safe Streets in St Kitts and Nevis, police said search teams had uprooted and seized more than 25,000 marijuana plants from 92 cultivated sites and valued the haul at over EC$11 million. The operation began on 20 September 2016 and combined police with the Defence Force, Customs and the Regional Security System.
Operation Safe Streets, a police-led operation against illegal firearms,
ammunition and drugs in St Kitts and Nevis, was in its fourth day with its
marijuana eradication objective being met, according to the Royal St Christopher
and Nevis Police Force.[1]
By 23 September, the fourth day of the operation, teams had visited 92 sites
under cultivation and uprooted and seized more than 25,000 marijuana plants
ranging from seedlings to over four feet tall.[1]Superintendent (Ag) Travis
Rogers, Divisional Commander ‘B’, put the estimated street value of the seizure
at more than $11,000,000 Eastern Caribbean dollars.[1]
Assistant Commissioner of Police Andre Mitchell, who had responsibility for
crime, said the marijuana trade of cultivation and sale contributed to gang
violence in the Federation, and that removing it was meant to reduce that
violence.[1]The police force said the operation’s other objective was to take
illegal firearms, ammunition, drugs and instruments usable in crime out of
communities.[1]
SKN PULSE published the same 23 September police release, with the same figure
of more than 25,000 plants from 92 sites and the same EC$11 million valuation.[2]
In a statement dated 28 September, police said the operation’s searches to that
point had found more than 31,000 marijuana plants under cultivation uprooted and
seized from over 75 fields, some plants as tall as eleven feet, along with a
very large quantity of dried and cured marijuana and a quantity ready for sale.[3]On Tuesday 27 September a combined search team executing a warrant in Boyds
Village seized a .380 pistol and five rounds of matching ammunition, and Kenesha
Whattley and Chadin Buchanan were arrested, charged and cautioned over the
firearm and ammunition, not cannabis.[3]
On Friday 30 September a combined team burned more than 31,000 marijuana plants
seized in Operation Safe Streets together with a large quantity of plants from
earlier St Kitts Nevis Defence Force eradication operations.[4]The plants on
the fire ranged in size from one foot to eleven feet, and Rogers said it was one
of the largest burns the force had done.[4]
Photos and video
Police photograph of some of the marijuana plants uprooted and seized in Operation Safe Streets, captioned 'Some of the Marijuana plants uprooted and seized by Police.' Photo: Royal St Christopher and Nevis Police Force, published by The St Kitts Nevis ObserverPhoto details
The plant count is published as more than 25,000 from 92 sites, so the figure records 25,000 as the stated minimum; the number of fields and the area cleared were not given.
The operation covered several areas across St Kitts and Nevis, but the release names no districts or individual sites.
No person was reported arrested or charged over cannabis cultivation in the 23 September release, and no cannabis weight was published.
The EC$11 million figure is the police force's estimated street value for the seized plants.
The force's 28 September statement put the total at more than 31,000 plants from over 75 fields, an update on this stage that this report does not fold in.
The 30 September burn destroyed plants from this operation together with plants from earlier Defence Force eradications, and the releases do not separate the two.
The SKN PULSE page is a reprint of the same police release as the submitted St Kitts Nevis Observer page, not independent reporting.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in The St Kitts Nevis Observer: The operation began in the early hours of Tuesday 20 September 2016, with search teams acting on collected intelligence and disrupting marijuana cultivation in several areas across St Kitts and Nevis.
Police, coast guard and customs officers searched the cargo vessel C-Elizabeth II after it docked at St Kitts on 10 August 2026 and found 12.515 pounds of cannabis and one kilogram of cocaine. The captain and six crew members were taken into custody.
Nubian Greaux of Shadwell Housing was charged with possession and cultivation of cannabis with intent to supply after police searched his home on 26 March 2026. Officers seized 271 cannabis plants and several packages of cannabis, and he was taken into custody and charged at Basseterre Police Station.
Police in St Kitts and Nevis uprooted 1,548 marijuana plants and seedlings in eradications on 23-28 April 2016 in Division B hills, Conaree, Newtown and Gingerland. The police Anti-Drug Unit said more than 24,000 plants and seedlings had been seized so far that year.
St Kitts police uprooted 550 marijuana plants in operations across five areas between 19 and 21 June 2008, seizing an air rifle and arresting one man for possession and cultivation after seeds were found at his home. No one else was held for the field finds.
