Five men, including septuagenarian, charged in $11b cocaine seizure
Published:Tuesday | August 20, 2024 | 12:10 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
A 72-year-old man is among five persons charged in the $11-billion cocaine bust in the upscale community in Havendale, St Andrew, earlier this month and who are currently in custody awaiting their first day in court.
Kingston residents Clive Davis, 57; Junior Haldane, 72; George Sterling; Collin Ricketts, 58, and 42-year-old Clayton Peart, who were accosted during the raid at Riverside Drive in Havendale, have been slapped with cocaine charges.
Deputy Police Commissioner Fitz Bailey said the men were interviewed in the presence of their lawyers and were charged last Friday with possession of cocaine, dealing in cocaine, trafficking cocaine and conspiracy.
A court date is to be finalised.
The deputy commissioner who was providing an update on the multibillion-dollar bust, said, “This seizure represents the largest on record in Jamaica’s history.
“The Firearms and Narcotics Investigation Division (FNID), along with its local, regional and international partners, continues investigation into this matter and are actively pursuing other leads to dismantle other criminal networks,” he said.
The men were busted on August 6 when officers from FNID accompanied by units from the Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC), raided the premises and seized several knitted bags of cocaine.
Approximately 2,600 kilograms or 5,569 pounds of cocaine, with a street value of US$75.79 million, were found at the house during a three-hour operation.
Two motor vehicles were also seized.
In the meantime, while highlighting that the division has been making a significant dent in the firearms and drugs trafficking trade, Bailey added that since the start of the year, efforts by the division have yielded the seizure of 68 illegal weapons, 1,154 rounds of ammunition, 20,074 kilograms of ganja, and approximately 67 kilograms of cocaine with an estimate street value of just over US$2 million. This however does not include the most recent cocaine bust.
Significant gains, he said, are also being made in the arrest of persons involved in drug breaches. So far, 168 people have been charged including 147 locals, five British, eight Americans, two Hungarians, one Dutch, one French, one Argentinian, one Haitian, one Nicaraguan and a Canadian.
“The Jamaica Constabulary Force will continue to pursue individuals and syndicates engaging in the illicit firearms and narcotics trade and posing the greatest threats to the Jamaican State having regards to the nexus between drugs, trafficking in firearms and violence,” the deputy commission said further.