By Carlisle Jno Baptiste
Roseau, Dominica-The Police in Dominica, under the watchful eyes of the media, the Minister of National Security, Rayburn Blackmoore, along with high-ranking members of the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force (CDPF), put to flames cocaine and cannabis with a total estimated street value of 53 million dollars.
Drugs are being destroyed under the watchful eyes of the media and the Minister of National Security. Photo by Carlisle Jno Baptiste
According to the acting Superintendent of Police in charge of the Southern Division, Delvin Jno-Lewis, “the cocaine amounted to approximately 52 million dollars, while cannabis amounted to 1.2 million dollars.”
“What we have here today is the destroying of cocaine and marijuana as part of Police Week…so, we used that initiative to do that, to show the public the confidence of the police and to show the public the results of our hard work, in our searches and our efforts to clamp down on criminals in our success as Operation Clean Street,” Jno-Lewis stated.
He also revealed that among the destroyed drugs were matters that were disposed of at court.
Acting Police Chief Lincoln Corbette was elated and said, “This sends a very serious message to the criminals that we won’t back down.”
“We’ll keep fighting to ensure that we will keep the streets clean, because these drugs like cocaine are very dangerous drugs and we won’t spare any efforts to ensure that we tackle them head-on,” he said.
“That’s the message this afternoon, that we are destroying the fruits of their labour (the drug dealers), and it’s clear that the work of the police is showing.”
He said that to seize that large amount of cocaine in one shot is “a big deal”.
“And the officers who did that must be commended… It’s a lot of hard work. It’s not by accident that we came across this amount of drugs, and I am very confident and happy that the officers were able to seize this quantity of drugs; everyone must be complimented from the Drugs Squad, Task Force, Intelligence Unit, and all,” the acting Police Chief remarked.
National Security Minister Rayburn Blackmoore, who witnessed the burning of the drugs, also commended the Police Chief and the officers.
“That is a further manifestation of the tremendous work that we have been able to do over the years, and, more specifically, as you heard from the Chief of Police and the Superintendent who is in Charge of the Southern Division, and the amount of cocaine and quantity that’s going to be actually disposed of today,” he said.
“But if we were to go back to the period last year to now, we speak about 89 million dollars’ worth of cocaine and other hard drugs. That in itself is a tremendous quantity of cocaine to be confiscated in a small island state.”
Blackmoore mentioned the firearms roadmap for Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states, which he says speaks to the various protocols to be followed to deal with the issue of illegal firearms.
“And part of that roadmap exercise is to dispose of antiquated explosives and firearms, hence, the police’s recent engagement in doing that through the instrumentality of IMPACS, the organ for CARICOM that is responsible for the implementation and management of crime, and for the CARICOM member state.”
Blackmoore also revealed that 348 antiquated firearms were actually destroyed along with what is called “smoke grenades, which I will not give you specifics.”
“The police have been trained on how to manage the armories, etc, and we’re going to continue that effort to ensure that the police are well trained in various disciplines to ensure that the police force is up to speed with contemporary times,” he stated.
The illegal drugs were destroyed during an exercise at the Police Training School at Morne Bruce on Wednesday.