More than two tons of marijuana were seized in the confrontation of two large international drug trafficking operations in the easternmost region of Cuba in less than a week. The first batch was seized after the pursuit of a speedboat detected in the night hours of October 9, whose crew threw the drug into the sea and then fled north. The rest was seized on October 16 when a boat with two outboard motors, three foreign crewmembers and the cargo was captured.
At 9:38 p.m. on October 9, radars detected a fast naval vessel bordering the southeastern coast of Cuba, heading north, and later a speedboat with two outboard engines was sighted, with three or four crewmembers on board. Joint naval units of the Border Guard Troops (TGF in Spanish) from the eastern region chased the boat for an hour, until it was no longer detected. The boat was traveling at high speed and it quickly moved away from our territory in the middle of the night.
As part of Cuba's international collaboration on this matter, a message on the event and the characteristics of the naval target was sent immediately to the Miami Coast Guard and the Royal Bahamas Defense Force, two of the possible destinations of the drug. This type of communication has made it possible to capture the perpetrators in previous cases
ACTING IN UNISON AND WITH THE PEOPLE
Based on the experience in confronting this type of events, from the very moment the pursuit of the suspicious vessel began, specialized forces of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) were activated. These forces took part in the expert and site investigation, the closure of the control points and on supporting the discovery capacity at the coastal edge and the depth, to determine if part of the drug cargo had been stolen or if the operation targeted the country.
In this event, TGF joint naval units mobilized in Holguin, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo. Forces of the Specialized Anti-Drug Confrontation Body of the Technical Directorate of Investigations and the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) in those territories, together with collaborators from the fishing cooperatives and the coastal towns in the area, who are members of the Mirando al Mar (watching the sea) coastal surveillance groups, made possible, in intense days of confrontation between October 9 and 13, to seize 70 containers and eight isolated packages containing a total of 1,618.75 kilograms of marijuana in the vicinity of Baracoa and Maisí.
The coordinated action among the forces taking part in the operations allowed the recovery of most of the drug at sea and prevented its dispersion.
According to information provided by the above-mentioned bodies of the MININT, this is one of the most complex confrontation to drug trafficking operations in the last few years, given the characteristics of the event and the volume of drug containers captured in more than 20 different moments and places of our territorial sea.
PERMANENT SURVEILLANCE
A few days later, on October 16, the alarms went off again in the early hours of the morning, after the radars provided the information of the presence of a boat north of Baracoa, Guantánamo. A short time later, a speedboat with two outboard motors and three crewmembers (two Bahamians and a Jamaican) with 730.41 kilograms of marijuana, coming from Jamaica, is captured.
The Border Troops were able to intercept the boat violating our territorial waters, which was involved in a serious crime of international drug trafficking, without harming the crew or the boat.
Investigations continue regarding the incident and the detainees, as well as the characteristics of the occupied cargo, the operation, origin and destination of the drugs.
These operations to stop drug trafficking in Cuban territorial waters are an expression of the political will of the Cuban government to continually intensify the fight against this problem and to prevent, by any means, the use of Cuba’s sea and air space as a pathway for international drug trafficking or to introduce illegal drugs in our country.
Behind hours of confrontation in the midst of darkness, the risks of pursuing vessels with unknown crews, who may be armed, among others, it’s the satisfaction of having contributed to saving millions of people who were the intended target of this drug, particularly the youth of the United States.
If one takes into account that in these two events 2,349 kilograms of that drug were seized, which equals 2,349,000 grams, and according to specialized calculations, traffickers prepare up to three joint-sticks of each gram of marijuana, it can be said that the shipments captured by the Cuban authorities could have affected more than seven million people.
The increase in naval incursions suspected of drug trafficking in the months of September and October coincides with the peak of marijuana production in the countries of the South, and the transportation of this production to the US market via the Bahamas.
The reinforcement actions in the easternmost region of Cuba, with the deployment of naval and land forces in front of the coast of Baracoa, and the coordinated action of the ministerial system of confrontation, have intensified the detection and pursuit of speedboats associated to international drug trafficking in the last months.
Last May, 251 drug packages with 593 kilograms of marijuana, which had been thrown into the sea by another fast boat that was being chased, were also seized, making the total amount to about three tons. Another testimony of the effectiveness of these operations is that between 90 and 95% of the drug was seized at sea.
According to the established procedures, the drug will be incinerated.
Translated by ESTI
