Four Jamaicans held after 3,736 lb marijuana seizure off Haiti
U.S. Coast Guard cutters Resolute and Mohawk intercepted a go-fast vessel about 14 nautical miles off Tiburon, Haiti, on 30 April 2024, apprehending four Jamaican men and seizing 3,736 pounds (about 1,694.62 kg) of marijuana valued by the Coast Guard at more than $3.5 million. A federal jury convicted Miguel Orr and Romaine Betty in January 2026, with sentencing scheduled for 22 May 2026.
🇻🇮 Caribbean Sea, about 14 nautical miles off Tiburon, Haiti · US Virgin Islands
The Resolute crew and Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk interdicted one go-fast vessel
and apprehended four suspected smugglers.[1]The interception took place off
Haiti’s southwest coast, where the Coast Guard seized3,736 pounds of marijuana
and valued the load at more than $3.5 million.[2]The four men were Miguel
Orr, Rayvon Smith, Sherland Campbell and Romaine Betty, all from Jamaica.[3]Trial evidence placed the interception on or about 30 April 2024, approximately
14 nautical miles off Tiburon, Haiti.[4]
Laboratory testing of samples from the recovered bales returned positive results
for marijuana, prosecutors said.[5]A federal grand jury indicted all four men
on a conspiracy charge involving possession with intent to distribute a
controlled substance aboard a vessel subject to U.S. jurisdiction.[3]
On 16 January 2026, a federal jury returned guilty verdicts against Miguel Orr
and Romaine Betty after a multi-day trial.[4]Orr was found guilty of
conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute aboard a vessel subject to
U.S. jurisdiction, while Betty was found guilty of possession with intent to
distribute.[4]Sentencing for Orr and Betty was scheduled for 22 May 2026
before Chief Judge Robert A. Molloy.[5]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The Coast Guard release gives no exact interdiction date; court documents place the interception on or about 30 April 2024.
The Coast Guard reported a value of more than $3.5 million, without giving an exact amount.
The indictment describes approximately 3,700 pounds, while the Coast Guard and trial accounts give 3,736 pounds; this report uses the precise 3,736-pound figure.
The opened accounts schedule sentencing for Orr and Betty on 22 May 2026 but do not report whether it occurred or what sentences were imposed.
The opened articles do not report what happened to Rayvon Smith and Sherland Campbell after indictment.
Special Response Battalion officers raided Rasulpur in Bijoynagar, Brahmanbaria, after a tip about drug trading. They recovered 300 kg of ganja from a roadside crop field after the suspects fled, with no arrests reported.
Virgin Islands agents seized about $18,000 in hemp-derived products from Homegrown Bar and Grill's St. Thomas store on 29 April 2025, the retailer alleges. The licensed retailer says the warrantless seizure was uncompensated and is challenging it and the later Act 9072 surrender rule in federal court.
A 28-year-old woman, Sherifa Petersen, was arrested and charged with introducing narcotics into the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix after officers found two small bags of marijuana in the soles of a pair of sneakers she brought for an inmate. Police were sent to the prison at 1:38 p.m. on Friday, 9 December 2016.
The DEA's Caribbean Division reported that Operation No Plant Left Behind eradicated almost 10,000 marijuana plants from 80 fields across St. Croix in a seven-day sweep ending on 20 June 2008, a record for the island.
