Over 50 Kilograms of cocaine was found on Saturday (22 January) at a government-run facility on the Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Security forces on the island discovered the drugs at a health clinic in the northeastern community of Owia.
Owia was one of the communities that sustained heavy losses to crops and massive damage to houses in the 2021 eruption of the La Soufriere volcano.
The drugs discovered could be linked to a cocaine bust on 7 January, where the US Navy’s USS Milwaukee and US Coast Guard seized an estimated $22 million in cocaine while operating in the Caribbean Sea.
While on patrol, a maritime patrol aircraft spotted a suspected drug smuggling go-fast vessel. Packages were also observed being thrown into the water, the Navy reported.
Online publication iWitness News reported on Monday that drug investigators found 54 kilograms of cocaine at the government-run clinic.
The publication also reported that five female health care workers were up to Sunday in Police custody. At the same time, two other villagers were also taken into custody following police searches at their homes.
On Sunday, Rochelle Baptiste, senior reporter with SVG TV, wrote her Facebook page.
“What an eventful two days in Owia….at least seven persons were picked up by the Police concerning a major “cocaine bust” at the Owia Clinic; however, up to this time, no one has been charged as the investigation continues”.
St Vincent Times understands that the bust may be part of a broader drug investigation.
Police on the island have not yet issued any official release into the ongoing investigation.
In 2015, police seized over $1 million worth of cocaine during an operation at Wallibou on the North Leeward side of St. Vincent.
According to United States (US) government sources, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was the “largest producer [and exporter] of marijuana in the Eastern Caribbean” and a “storage and transhipment point for narcotics, mostly cocaine, transferred from Trinidad and Tobago and South America” in small boats.
