Illegal drug use in Cayman changing, warn police
(CNS): While the bulk of illegal drugs being smuggled into the Cayman Islands is still ganja, the police are seeing an increase in different types of illicit drugs on the local streets, including cocaine, opioids and illegal pharmaceuticals, the RCIPS management has said. The police are particularly concerned about the emergence of fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid fuelling an overdose crisis in the United States.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday about the 2022 crime statistics, senior members of the RCIPS revealed that last year they had a visit from representatives of the US Drug Enforcement Agency to help with training and share their experiences dealing with drug trafficking and drug-fuelled crime.
Cocaine is being consumed by people across all walks of life and is no longer a white-collar drug. Police Commissioner Derek Byrne said that cocaine use is causing some of the acquisitive crime that is taking place, such as car thefts and burglary, which is being committed by a small number of prolific offenders who are users.
Many of these people are suffering from substance abuse problems as well as mental health or financial difficulties, including homelessness, which police said impacts their behaviour.
While specific drug crime numbers fell slightly overall last year, the number of supply offences for cocaine and ganja increased. Police said they conducted a number of protracted, intelligence-led, complex investigations in 2022 and seized CI$4 million worth of illegal drugs during the year. Around $34,000 in cash, believed to be money gained from dealing, was also seized.
Approximately 2,915lbs of ganja with a conservative estimated street value of just over
CI$2.9 million was seized, and around 56kgs of cocaine was recovered during operations or recovered after being washed up on beaches across all three islands.
The number of seizures at sea declined, which Byrne believes may be due to traffickers’ increased awareness of the Cayman Islands Coast Guard’s ability to track the drug canoes in local waters, which increases their risk.
During 2022 the RCIPS continued to work on various proactive investigations in collaboration with regional partners, which were carried out to prevent drugs from reaching the Cayman Islands from elsewhere.
The type of drug coming into Cayman is beginning to diversify from what was once almost all ganja with a small amount of cocaine and now includes such drugs as ecstasy and prescription pharmaceuticals.
Opioids are giving the police cause for concern, especially the arrival of fentanyl and the possibility of people overdosing here. The Health Service Authority is now helping police to secure the antidote, Naloxone, a life-saving medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids.
Police noted that while alcohol fuels a notable percentage of violent crime, only 1% of reported cases of violence involved people using drugs. Drug possessions unrelated to importation are usually detected as a result of searches related to other crimes or intelligence-led busts.
See the 2022 crime statistics in the CNS Library.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Something is awefully amiss with the shipment of fentanyl.
Notice the article did not say the quantity of fentanyl seized.
Such a drug is produced to treat severe pain.
Sources claim it is stronger morphine.
Fentanyl candy is a real culprit.
Yes indeed dangerious in the wrong hands.
If there is a hunger for drug experimentation, then we can ask:
Would you take fentanyl if it was offered to you with no prescription?
Just do a good job at checking your clan for signs of depression, and conduct surveys, this may help.
So why are the bars and restaurants not raided or at least patrolled with K9??
Only local bars??!
Ganja, crack and ecstasy have been around for years. Rare to have overdoses on crack, it just makes its users toothless and meager.
Fentanyl is very concerning and so will the ‘zombie’ drug (Tranq/Krokodil) FYI: Narcan does not work on Tranq.
The above two kill people, with Tranq also causing necrotizing tissue loss. Yummy..
So yes, The hospital and Police need/must get Narcan.
Must also get Narcan for their Police dogs as Fentanyl powder will kill a dog quick time. So RCIP, show that you care about your dogs.
.. meanwhile, the only side effect I experience from ganja is a sudden snack shortage in my pantry
Facts!!!!
its always been here. well since i left school 10 years ago we were doing “drugs” tripping on Acid so forth. But only now the “Government” has been woke. drugs are a problem but what is the real issue here?
The “WAR ON DRUGS” is OVER. Drugs won.
Legalization = less crimes/desperation. It then means easy, over the counter access it is now with the others legal consumables/vices. You know them as alcohol beverages & cigarettes. Of course you should tax the legalized drugs like alcohol & cigarettes, known as a sin tax. Cha-ching monies, less crime and less wasted resources fighting an unwinnable “war”. It also means less police officers & enforcement, maybe they don’t agree with legalization, because many will be out of a job in certain departments. 🤔
CIG insisted on growing the population, you telling me they never realized it would mean growing our exposure to or interest in different types of drugs? I really cannot.
Hope the island is stocking up on Narcan spray. Have them in every patrol car and in the schools. Families should also be able to purchase the spray, if feel necessary.
@10:28 ask Portland legislators how that’s working out for them.
What ever happened to that drug bust with one of those large firm directors? Been years there has been nothing but silence on the matter. Will he ever be charged?
If its been years since he was arrested, suspect a prosecution would fail anyway given the delay in moving to a charge impacting the ability to have a fair trial. Which then gets used by the DPPP as a justification for not proceeding.
He probably has an undercover part-time job with the RCIPS.
He actually is an officer now. Truth.
GHB, ketamine, and rohypnol drink spiking also on the rise, patterns linked to specific bars and clubs, but no police under covers, investigation, or arrests. Boys will be boys and all.
white collar cocaine use is frightening.
That’s coz it’s yummy.
Why are these never highlighted in the news?
5:45 no way they’d want to bust their cousins
how do you know if they are undercover?
#freeelvis
Elvis case was thrown out
CI$4 million worth of illegal drugs during the year. Around $34,000 in cash
The math aint mathing… only $34,000 in money uuhhhh
Did you even read? “Around $34,000 in cash, believed to be money gained from dealing, was also seized.” ‘Also’ meaning ‘in addition to’. The cash is separate from the $4mil worth of drugs.
If you have $4M in inventory and $34k in cash, then you have poor business skills. Not everyone is going to be an academic prodigy, but it would be worthwhile if Cayman put some effort into teaching basic principles of business in the educational curriculum. It is shameful to be running a business that lean and unable to financially cope with exigencies which may arise. Either the inventory turnover ratio is too low, or the managers are maintaining an insufficiently capitalized business.
Hundreds of millions are laundered back to source via Cayman. Zero AML arrests. This is why we can’t shake the OECD FATF watch lists. They’ve told us this, and we respond by enacting immaterial unsupervised legislation. The 200+ churches need to be audited.
Diversifying the RCIPS will help catch these drug pushers as the populace just might be more inclined to make a report. There are too many of ‘one kind’ of people in the RCIPS and that, in my opinion, in itself, is a recipe for disaster.
do you mean all the English coppers?
No, the Jamaican ones that wave their friends past when they’re doing a rare traffic campaign. Literally saw it this week on South Sound, stopping all the cars with the appropriate licence and tints, and waving at their friends driving by with broken lights, tints as black as night and everything else. This is such a racist island sadly
this is so true @12:39pm.
19 @ 1:24 am – No. Jamaican cops!
Drugs are so expensive in Cayman. You can’t assume the min wage workers sub 20k a year are buying all these drugs. There are normally financial people and lawyers and all those high-end jobs.
But no one wants to admit that, just blame the poor violent people for the drug problem.
Just take a walk down mary street on a drug delivery day and you will know that this statement is false.
False how?? You think jam $25 herb deals are high-value worth?
What you see vs what you don’t see is the problem. Do you think high-collar people doing deals on the street in broad daylight?
Check across the street from Eden Rock.
You’ve been watching too many ‘80s movies
To our Legislators – enact stricter laws – 30 years for importation of any quantity or type of hard drug period! These suppliers are the scourge of the earth.
legalize it!!!
Legislators HaHAHAHAHAHAHA quite a few of them are the very scourge you are speaking about 1237pm thus they ain’t going to do $#@!
That would be bad for Kenny
Jay???!! Where you at bro ?
RCIP – YOU are responsible. Most people in Cayman are not Caymanian. Most drug users in Cayman are not Caymanian.
Using illegal drugs is not only a crime, but is a clear breach of the requirements to be here. RCIP, when was the last time you reported a suspected drug user to Immigration/WORC/CBC?
The answers to significant aspects of most of our problems lie scattered around the feet of agencies who do nothing and then trip over the very problems they have facilitated.
blame blame blame. YAWN
So how many have the police reported to immigration? Ever!
So do something. The allegations are fair and accurate. Why are the various law enforcement agencies not working together to address all the issues harming our community?
Unreal. Your pointing figure must be tired.
A 2-pack nasal Narcan on Amazon is a hundred bucks. It should be a component of every commercial first aid kit for at least the last 5 years. Let’s hope our schools, hotels, and attractions aren’t as clued-out as our Health Ministry.
You use, you lose. That’s on you.
Fatal lessons for the kids in the schoolyard? Or a $50 nasal pen to save their life so they can survive to learn the lesson?
There are heroin and fentanyl-laced gummy bears being sold now as THC gummies:
“…both fentanyl and heroin were found in Strictly Delta gummies, called “Delta 8 THC 600 MG Happy Cubes”.
Happening now
These drug dealers must not be good economists.
yawn…the ‘war’ on drugs continues.
how much police resources are wasted on cannabis busts????
when is cayman going to move into the 21st century regarding cannabis??
Drugs can be a serious problem but it is absurd that you can walk into a doctor’s office, say you’re having trouble sleeping and walk out with a prescription for the same stuff that we’re spending tons of resources on seizing, not to mention the potential criminal record for something as simple as possession.
The hospital or health clinic (or, as you call it, “a doctor’s office”) is where patients consult a medical doctor, who prescribes cannabis extracts/tinctures, and, thereafter, a pharmacist at a retail pharmacy dispenses such medical cannabis pharmaceuticals.
The main issue that is vital to understand here is proper quality control mechanisms between the licensed and regulated provision of a controlled drug and the black market that has no guaranteed quality control mechanisms in place.
Yet, we regularly read about handmade Cuban raft-boats making clandestine landfall, undetected, even with 5-6ft of flat plywood freeboard to return a blip if our Coast Guard had their 100nm radar on. CI Coast aren’t deterring anything. In all these years they can’t even manage a web page.
They should check all the fishing boats coming back and then partying while living on vacant land annoying neighbors who paid for their lot.
Sounds like you have a very specific experience. You should report that if it is something you have witnessed.
You should sell your house lot if your neighbors are untenable.