The Narcotics Division of the police, members of the national defense and the Customs Agency found the shipment in the port of this capital, in a container from the Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited coming from Colombia, described newspaper The Gleaner.

It is the third important discovery in the last four months, and it is ruled out that this Caribbean nation was the final destination of the drug, the authorities said.

On December 26 last year, more than 900 kilograms (kg) of cocaine were found after the Defense Forces intercepted a speedboat in jurisdictional waters off the coast of Santo Tomás.

The three Jamaican citizens who were on board the boat are in custody and specialists agreed the boat came from Colombia.

In September last year, approximately 500kg of cocaine was also found in 10 large holdalls at St Mary’s Ian Fleming International Airport.

The finding triggered a high-level police investigation and a security audit by airport operators, but no arrests have been made to date, according to press reports.

With the rise of drug trafficking to the United States in the 1980s, this nation of just 2.9 million inhabitants became one of the main ports in the Caribbean on the cocaine route.

The problem continued in recent years, which has also helped to finance the so-called gangs, the main perpetrators of the reported crimes, many of them for territorial control.

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