By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

DEFENCE force officers arrested a man with boxes of suspected stolen items during a routine patrol of the Marsh Harbour dock on Wednesday night.

Leading Seaman Roscoe Greene, 40, said nearly 20 boxes of toiletries, groceries, unused tyres and lamps were recovered.

He called this the single largest seizure of suspected stolen items he has seen since arriving in Abaco after Hurricane Dorian a month ago.

He said such arrests are not unusual, with officers arresting people found moving boats, generators, and “other items people have been reporting missing.” Marsh Harbour’s dock has especially been a hotspot for likely thieves trying to transport stolen items off the island.

“Given the state of Abaco, you wouldn’t expect people to be shipping stuff out, things should be coming in so when we see stuff like someone lingering at the dock after hours, we approach them and ask them to produce receipts,” he said. “Especially at night where the place is pretty dark, no person should be lingering or loitering in that area.

“We’ve uncovered other criminal activities as well, like a guy who was looting from a clothing store, stealing a number of brand name clothes and jewellery while having about $1,000 in his pocket.”

Seaman Greene said officers have also been keeping an eye out for undocumented migrants. He estimated that they have arrested 30 to 40 such people in his time on the island and have turned them over to the Department of Immigration.

“Immigration had a flight no later than (Thursday) morning of persons we collected and turned over to them,” he said. “We are trying to curtail the undocumented immigrant problem on the island.”

After Hurricane Dorian devastated Abaco, law enforcement faced withering criticism for how it has secured the island. Many Abaco residents complained of widespread looting, with fears of violence and vigilantism.

Officer Greene said his team remains vigilant.

“On a daily basis we would go out on the streets and do routine patrols in strategic business areas, the container port, domestic dock areas and we would drive throughout neighbourhoods. On Wednesday night we just decided to drive on the dock to make checks. Upon doing so we noticed a single black man with a flashlight, eagerly packing some items on a pallet. We approached him, interviewed him and we discovered that he had a plastic tarp over a pallet. He said he got the items off the dump but we knew it wasn’t true because the boxes were still sealed. We could see the items were stolen from someone’s store or warehouse.”

Officer Greene said since arriving on the island he has observed a steady decline in the number of required arrests.

“There is a decline now that we are on the ground and conducting traffic stops and screening persons at ID checks to determine if they are undocumented, all to bring some normalcy to the island,” he said. “We run vehicle check points from time to time. The word is out there that we are making progress and making our presence felt.”