Nine­teen Venezue­lan na­tion­als, in­clud­ing two mi­nors, were de­tained af­ter po­lice in­ter­cept­ed a pan­el van dur­ing an ex­er­cise in Glen­coe over the week­end.

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­lease, the 17 adults and two mi­nors, who po­lice said had en­tered the coun­try il­le­gal­ly, were de­tained dur­ing an Op­er­a­tion Res­olute Shield ex­er­cise in the West­ern Di­vi­sion.

The ex­er­cise took place be­tween 9 pm on Sat­ur­day and 5 am on Sun­day.

Task Force of­fi­cers con­duct­ed a road ex­er­cise along the West­ern Main Road and stopped and searched a white pan­el van dri­ven by a 47-year-old man.

The search led to the dis­cov­ery of 19 Venezue­lan na­tion­als, who were de­tained along with the dri­ver.

The Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion was con­tact­ed.

The ex­er­cise was sanc­tioned by Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Williams and spear­head­ed by In­spec­tor Grant, with the in­volve­ment of ASP Bur­ris and ASP Her­nan­dez.

Mean­while, in a sep­a­rate Op­er­a­tion Res­olute Shield ex­er­cise, this time con­duct­ed in the South­ern Di­vi­sion, three male sus­pects were ar­rest­ed and quan­ti­ties of cannabis seized.

Task Force of­fi­cers of Area East con­duct­ed the ex­er­cise be­tween 3 pm and 8 pm on Sun­day, dur­ing which they searched sev­er­al ve­hi­cles pro­ceed­ing along the Moru­ga and Na­pari­ma Ma­yaro Main Roads.

As a re­sult, two male sus­pects were ar­rest­ed for pos­ses­sion of cannabis, while a third was held for us­ing ob­scene lan­guage.

The of­fi­cers then pro­ceed­ed to La Ruf­fin Road, Moru­ga, where they con­duct­ed a search in the vicin­i­ty of the old spring bridge.

The search re­sult­ed in the dis­cov­ery of a brown pack­age con­tain­ing a quan­ti­ty of cannabis.

The ex­er­cise was co­or­di­nat­ed by Snr Supt Hospedales, W/Supt Bridglal, ASPs Pacheco and Chul­han, In­sp Wilkin­son and Sgt Singh and in­clud­ed of­fi­cers of South­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force Ar­eas East and West.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing in­to the above mat­ters.