Cuba dismantles illegal drug trafficking operation

The operation was dismantled after police demonstrated the persistence with which an emigrant in the United States organized the drug shipments to Cuba to be sold in Havana.

Lieutenant Colonel Alejandro Lugo, section chief of the Specialized Anti-Drug Enforcement Body of the Technical Directorate of Investigations (DTI), informed that US authorities were notified of a previous operation by the suspect, without any response of the action against him.

“As a policy, every time a case is detected in which a Cuban emigrant is involved and we obtain elements of proof, US authorities are informed about the case,” he stated.

Hence, Cuba holds the US Government responsible for the impunity with which drug smugglers act from that territory, according to the press release.

In this case, the individual’s modus operandi was to introduce the drug in the double bottom of bags and the investigation flowed due to the total impunity with which the Cuban emigrant acted, who has not answered the accusation, Captain Arnal Ramos Maqueira, instructor of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation, noted.

In the operation, 605 grams of synthetic cannabinoid and 656,470 Cuban pesos were seized, as well as a sealing machine and empty envelopes to mask and commercialize the drug.

Other items seized included three electrical motorcycles, 16 cell phones, two digital balances, a 22-caliber pistol with seven projectiles, and several gold items.

In the United States, between April 2020 and the same month in 2021, more than 100,000 deaths occurred due to the so-called “opiate pandemic,” Colonel Hector Gonzalez Hernandez, second chief of the DTI’s Anti-Drug Enforcement Specialized Body, told national television on February 18.

As part of Cuba’s work against this scourge, some 4,162 kilograms of drugs, mostly marijuana, were seized in operations of this type, as well as five naval vehicles, last year.