(Trinidad Express) TRINIDAD and Tobago has been named among 34 Caribbean and Latin American countries that participated in an Interpol-led operation that netted nearly 30 tonnes of cocaine, heroin and marijuana, with an estimated value of US$822 million.
The operation, which was conducted from May 27 to June 10, targeted maritime trafficking of drugs and illicit firearms by organised criminal groups across Central America and the Caribbean.
The details were released on the Interpol website on July 2.
“Operation Lionfish, coordinated by Interpol’s Regional Bureau for Central America in San Salvador (El Salvador), with support from the Drugs and Criminal Organisations unit at the General Secretariat headquarters, involved some 34 countries and territories and also resulted in 142 arrests, the seizure of 15 vessels, eight tonnes of chemical precursors, 42 guns and approximately US$170,000.
“The operation was coordinated in response to growing evidence of the organised crime in the trafficking of drugs and firearms in the Central America and Caribbean regions due to its strategic location, with a significant increase in the number of cocaine seizures by local authorities, and a reported increase in violent crime,” the Interpol website stated.
Head of Interpol’s Regional Bureau in San Salvador, Saul Hernandez Lainez, said: “The operation demonstrates the importance of Interpol’s global tools and network, and the added value of Regional Bureaus in supporting member countries in their fight against organised crime and drug trafficking.”
And Interpol’s Director of Operational Support, Michael O’Connell, said:
“The value of operations such as Lionfish is not just about the arrests and seizures, it is also about Interpol’s support to its member countries to strengthen national and regional law enforcement cooperation in our continued efforts to target organised crime networks behind the trafficking.”
Dale Sheehan, Interpol’s Director of Capacity Building and Training, said: “Regional and multilingual training combined with operational exercises has strengthened efforts of the Americas to fight organised crime, and has offered new perspectives for future joint interventions.”
The operation was also supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada (DFAIT), under the banner of Interpol’s Integrated Border Management Task Force which is part of Interpol’s Capacity Building Programme on Organised Crime for the Americas.
The countries who participated in the operation were Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Grenada, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Maarten, Spain, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela.
