PHILIPSBURG:--- With the increased controls conducted by the Customs department during the carnival season, customs officers managed to make two drug busts within the past two weeks. Head of the Customs department Antony Doran told SMN News that two weeks ago custom officers during their routine controls at the harbor searched a container that had a huge iron pipe inside. Doran said the pipe was made from very heavy and solid materials that the customs officers had to use heavy machinery frrom the fire department to break the pipe where they discovered 10 kilos of cocaine. The head of the Customs department explained the container in question had left Santa Martha Colombia enroute to Jamaica with its final destination being St. Maarten.
Doran said due to the investigation he did not release the information earlier. He said on Easter Sunday his officers did another search on a vessel coming from Jamaica carrying the name BV Leticia, this vessels he said also comes from Jamaica and during the search his officers confiscated 150 kilos of marijuana that were stored in 8 buckets.
Doran said both investigations are ongoing and that due to the investigation that involves the originating countries no more information cannot be released at this time.
Customs Officers on Tuesday morning March 22st confiscated approximately 10 kilos of cocaine hidden in a steel tube loaded in a container that arrived from Jamaica. With assistance of the Fire Department the steel tubes were cut open to remove the cocaine.
A few days later, on March 28th Customs found almost 150 kilo marijuana in a container that arrived also from Jamaica. The drugs were found after a regular check on containers entering the harbor, Head of Customs Anthony Doran said. The marijuana were packed in in several buckets.
We are now conducting an intense investigation, it is known for whom the container is destined for, but due to ongoing investigations no further information can be released at this moment.
No arrest has been made as yet Doran said.
