Derek Achong

The St Vin­cent and the Grenadines Coast Guard ar­rest­ed three T&T na­tion­als five miles off the coast of St Vin­cent on Tues­day, with more than $4 mil­lion worth of mar­i­jua­na. The men ages 33, 39 and 40 are said to be from Cumana Vil­lage, To­co and Blan­chisseuse. The haul was made af­ter a blue and white pirogue was in­ter­cept­ed by the Coast Guard. Au­thor­i­ties said up­on search­ing the ves­sel, they found 11 cro­cus bags con­tain­ing a to­tal of 472 lbs of mar­i­jua­na.

They be­lieve the sus­pects col­lect­ed the mar­i­jua­na in St Vin­cent and were on their way back to Trinidad.

Sources said yes­ter­day the ves­sel, equipped with two 200 hp Yama­ha out­board en­gines, was used for a fast jour­ney be­tween the is­lands for the fre­quent trans­porta­tion of drugs, guns and am­mu­ni­tion. The men have been charged and T&T au­thor­i­ties in­formed of their ar­rest. St Vin­cent po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.