By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

OFFICIALS seized more than one million dollars worth of cocaine during a drug bust at Great Inagua over the weekend.

Acting on a tip, Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT) conducted a search of L’assistance Express, a vessel that had just arrived from Haiti on Friday, January 4.

Once on board at around 9am, OPBAT officers discovered 89 kilos of cocaine with an estimated street value of $1.3 million. Eight men on board the vessel were also arrested.

Authorities flew both the drugs and the men to New Providence where investigations are continuing.

This latest find is a continuation of efforts by officials to thwart drug trafficking through the country.

Last year, police admitted that they were keeping a close eye on persons travelling from Panama to the Bahamas after more than four people were arrested attempting to smuggle drugs.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson told The Tribune that authorities had to be vigilant concerning drug smuggling through the Bahamas.

His comments came after a 27-year-old woman was taken into custody in October after she was found with two and half kilos of cocaine.

At the time airport police said the Windsor Lane woman was arrested shortly after getting off a flight from Panama on Copa Airlines.

Police sources said the woman was found with a duffel bag containing three cereal boxes each holding a baggie of cocaine. The drugs were estimated at $25,000.

Days prior, another woman, 25, was arrested after she was found with six pounds of what was believed to be cocaine.

Officers from the airport police station arrested the woman shortly after 11am in the US Customs hall of LPIA.

The drugs had an estimated street value of $47,000.

In September,  37-year-old Sheldon Davis of Fox Hill was sentenced to four years in prison when he was caught with $2 million worth of heroin.

Davis had just arrived from Panama on Copa Airlines. He was caught by authorities with two backpacks. In the bags were nine and a half pounds of heroin.