A ma­jor drug traf­fick­ing bust has led to the ar­rest of one man and the seizure of US$1 mil­lion of hero­in and co­caine bound for the Unit­ed States.

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds yes­ter­day ex­pressed grat­i­tude to the US Drug En­force­ment Ad­min­is­tra­tion of­fice at the US Em­bassy, who as­sist­ed the T&T Transna­tion­al Or­gan­ised Crime Unit (TOCU) in the op­er­a­tion.

Hinds said, “US DEA agents in Philadel­phia and at the US Em­bassy start­ed work­ing on this case with us in 2020, cul­mi­nat­ing in this ma­jor ar­rest and ex­tra­di­tion or­der. I am grat­i­fied that our ex­cel­lent co­op­er­a­tion has led to this ar­rest. We count on our Amer­i­can part­ners in law en­force­ment to as­sist us in mak­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go safer for our com­mu­ni­ties.”

A state­ment is­sued by the US Em­bassy said the in­ves­ti­ga­tion cul­mi­nat­ed in the ar­rest of Shurlan Gup­py on Sep­tem­ber 26. He has been charged with traf­fick­ing hero­in and co­caine val­ued at US$1 mil­lion to the US.
He is charged in the Unit­ed States Dis­trict Court for the East­ern Dis­trict of Penn­syl­va­nia, and will be ex­tra­dit­ed to Penn­syl­va­nia to face charges.

Dur­ing the ear­ly morn­ing ex­e­cu­tion of the ar­rest war­rant at Good­wood Park, Diego Mar­tin, agents found a firearm and one kilo­gram of co­caine in the sus­pect’s res­i­dence, the state­ment said.

In the state­ment, US Am­bas­sador Can­dace Bond said, “I am proud of the painstak­ing work the US Em­bassy’s DEA agents do every sin­gle day to help end drug traf­fick­ing and to strength­en cit­i­zen se­cu­ri­ty for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”