BK ship released by Jamaican authorities

Jamaican authorities have released the BK International ship on which two Guyanese sailors were caught with 335 pounds of compressed ganja on Tuesday.

It is not clear whether the Guyanese were smuggling the drugs from Guyana to Jamaica or they had purchased it in Kingston and were taking it somewhere else.

According to reports reaching this newspaper Jamaican Maritime police released the vessel MV Alexis T registered to BK International the day after the two passengers were busted.

When contacted yesterday Public Relations Officer of BK International, Neville Kissoon said that the company would issue a statement on the matter. Up to press time yesterday the statement had not reached this newspaper.

On Tuesday, marine police in Kingston busted the Guyanese on the ship while it was delivering rice in Jamaica. The value of the drug was given as J$32M (US$536,000).

The two Guyanese, Reuben Reagan Rodney and Vernon Mc Garrell appeared in the Half Way Tree Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to four charges. They will be sentenced on Monday. The men were charged with possession, taking steps to export and dealing and trafficking in ganja after Marine Police boarded the 250-foot ship MV Alexis T, which was delivering a shipment of rice from Guyana at the Flour Mills terminal in Rockfort, East Kingston. Rodney and McGarrell were found in their cabins, each with three bags containing a total of 335-pounds of compressed ganja, reports out of Kingston had said. The vessel was scheduled to depart for Trinidad. The captain of the vessel had told a Jamaica Gleaner reporter that the incident was the first of its kind in his five years at the company.

Stabroek News was told that the vessel left for Jamaica in the first week of January.

The Jamaica Gleaner had reported on Wednesday that the seizure was the second such incident within a week. According to the newspaper the police were carrying out a routine patrol and boarded the 250-foot Guyanese ship between 11:30 am and midday on Tuesday when they discovered the contraband. The newspaper added that the two Guyanese crew members were arrested, after both of them were found with three bags estimated to contain 335 pounds of compressed ganja.

“Lately, we’ve been discovering that vessels leaving here for Trinidad are being targeted by persons smuggling drugs like the ganja found on the vessel behind Petrojam which was destined for Trinidad … so apparently they have ways of getting it from Trinidad to the States,” said Superintendent Marlon Dietrich of the Marine division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Gleaner reported.