Puerto Rico a growing hub for cocaine, heroin shipments to the US – IOTW Report

Puerto Rico a growing hub for cocaine, heroin shipments to the US

WaExaminer: Puerto Rico has become a hotbed for drug traffickers attempting to smuggle cocaine and heroin from South America to the East Coast of the U.S.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized 65,890 pounds of narcotics in and around Puerto Rico from drug cartels and smugglers in fiscal year 2017, more than any previous year on record, according to federal data.

Jeffrey Quinones, public affairs officer for CBP’s Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands outposts, said the eastern Caribbean has served as a trafficking pit stop for decades, but the recent uptick indicates cartels are using the 100-mile-wide island to circumnavigate the southwest border.

“Drug trafficking organizations have always sought to use the Caribbean as a route to smuggle both narcotics and migrants. The logistics to do so are intrinsically more complicated than traversing the southwest border,” Quinones told the Washington Examiner. “Nonetheless, we have seen cyclical increases in the quantity of narcotics brought to these islands and a diversity of means to conceal and enter the product.“  keep reading

4 Comments on Puerto Rico a growing hub for cocaine, heroin shipments to the US

  1. SEE?? This is all Trump’s fault for not helping PR rebuild!!***These will be headlines from coast to coast before long. Thank God he ignores so much of the BS going on in this country.

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  2. Growing hotbed of drug trafficking?
    The first time we went to St. Thomas it was the week before Easter. The marina was full of huge yachts. The locals told us they were mostly owned by drug dealers from Puerto Rico who had gone there to party for Easter week.
    PR has been a mess for decades.
    The place is disgusting.

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