Some 2.2 tonnes of marijuana have been seized by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service in the past 24 hours.
In making the announcement today, the Police Commissioner said the total estimated street value of the seized narcotics is just over 200 million dollars.
And as police say the radar played a key role in the first marijuana bust on Thursday, did it also play a role in the second marijuana find?
00:00So in a 24-hour period, the TTPS took 2 tons, 2.2 tons of marijuana off the streets that would have been flooding and creating havoc and fueling crime.
00:14Police Commissioner Alastair Guevara rose a declaration during the opening ceremony of the Brian Laura Promenade Police Post in Port of Spain on Friday morning following the TTPS's seizure in the Karani Swamp on Thursday of 1,560 kilograms of creepy marijuana estimated at $171.2 million and another discovery in Point 14.
00:39And yesterday evening, whilst in office around 6 o'clock, information again came to my knowledge.
00:49And I went to a place called South Central Road, Mr. Alexander. I think you're from down on that side.
00:57I'm from South. I never went in that bush. I felt a place I could go and hunt.
01:03We recovered a further 600 and something kilograms of marijuana again.
01:07The TTPS later said that seizure in Point 14 was estimated at $56 million.
01:14The police had said the new U.S. military radar system in Tobago was instrumental in Thursday's marijuana seizure.
01:22TV6 News sought clarification on Friday.
01:24Could you say if that radar system also played a role in the second fine you spoke about?
01:28So, most definitely, technology played a major role.
01:34However, I recognise this morning that persons are saying that put out too much information in the public.
01:40So I'm saying the public has been calling for information.
01:44And we must balance the need to give the public information as well as the need to keep particular bits of information that are sensitive to national security, to national security.
01:55We also spoke with Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander.
01:59In terms of the data that the radar is gathering, if you can, at least give some sense to the public, how is that data?
02:07Is it being shared from the U.S. to the police, the defence force?
02:11Or how is it working?
02:13There are some things that we need to keep close to our chest for national security purposes.
02:20So I want to leave that right there.
02:21Yeah, someday, eventually, we'll be able to answer it.
02:24Probably not this year.
02:25Sometime going forward.
02:26As for criticisms online that no arrests were made with the marijuana fines,
02:31the police commissioner said about the first one that the suspects, upon hearing the boat with the police on board,
02:38would not have returned with the weed.
02:40When you enter South Central Road, the first thing you see, men on their phones.
02:46So why would I leave my officers to do surveillance in the bush for two and three nights to get mosquito bite and dengue,
02:53when the simplest thing will be to just take the marijuana and remove it and later destroy it?
02:58Later on Friday, the top cops said the total estimated street value of the marijuana seized by the TTPS within the 24-hour period was $227 million.
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