1,290 Arrested in Caribbean Drug Crackdown
Anti-drug agents from more than a dozen nations and territories arrested 1,290 people, including suspected ringleaders, in a drive on the Caribbean region’s growing drug trade, a U.S. official said Thursday.
Hundreds of people were arrested in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, “hot spots” of the Caribbean traffic in illicit drugs, said Michael Vigil, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Caribbean field division.
Along with the land route through Mexico, Caribbean sea lanes are the primary paths for transporting drugs from South American producers to the key U.S. market.
The two-week-long Operation Columbus helped cement Caribbean anti-drug cooperation, Vigil said.
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