Saint Mary police seized 100 pounds of Ganja, 4 held

Jamaica: Four individuals were held by the police officers on duty including three men and a woman and seized compressed ganja from the possession in the locality of Saint Mary. The quantity of recovered compressed ganja weighed around a hundred pounds which was seized on Thursday, 18 April.

As per the sources, the discovery of the illegal possession of the ganja in the compressed form was made on the day while a team of police officers was on an operation in the area of Saint Mary, a parish in the northeastern part of Jamaica.

The action was taken by a team of assigned police officers from the Area 2 Narcotics Police Division who were conducting an exercise along the main roads in the localities of Retreat and Rio Nuevo at the time of the night. The officers on duty were stopping and searching the motor vehicles travelling along the way.

In the process of stop and search exercise of several motor vehicles, the police officers signalled the drivers of the two suspected motor vehicles, which were a Toyota Noah car 2014 model of black colour and a Toyota Axio car 2013 model of grey colour.

In response to the signal by the police officers on the field, the drivers of both motor vehicles obeyed the orders and slowed down but immediately attempted to flee from the scene as they got a chance. However, the police officers managed to block the vehicles in the way after which the instant search was conducted.

Reportedly, the two suspected vehicles were searched in the process and it was mentioned that the officers found twenty counts of knitted bags. On the examination of the bags in Saint Mary, the police officers found a hundred and eighteen parcels containing ganja in compressed form.

Eventually, the quantity of discovered ganja was seized by the police officers on duty and the four suspects were arrested for the offence of possessing a stock of illegal items. Among the suspects, one was a woman who was also taken into custody for further proceedings.

The people are saying in the discovery of ganja in Saint Mary by police, “Why is ganja possession still a criminal activity in Jamaica or anywhere in the region in 2024? It’s time to stop criminalising our people and move to integrate the trade in ganja into our economies even if it means decriminalising the ‘drug’ within each domestic space. Why is this so hard to do?”