The head of the anti-drug agency of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint), Colonel Juan Carlos Poey, said that the authorities involved in this fight are trained, and international criminal assistance is offered for the capture and extradition of Cuban organizers of trafficking operations abroad.
He also stressed that the Central American and Caribbean region continues to be used as a transit zone for large-scale trafficking, and that drug trafficking has increasingly strong ties to firearms trafficking, which poses a serious problem for the stability and security of the region and the Western Hemisphere.
Appearing the day before on the radio program Mesa Redonda, the head of the anti-drug agency of the Ministry of the Interior mentioned among the main results of this year the capture of 82 raids in which more than 507 kg of drugs were seized, with a predominance of cocaine (309,361 kg).
He pointed out that 18 people were charged for trying to appropriate the drugs seized and 35.97 kg of these substances were seized, preventing them from reaching the internal market.
Together with the border troops and the Minint headquarters of Artemisa, Pinar del Rio and the municipality of Isla de la Juventud (west), four combined operations of human and drug trafficking were confronted and hindered, using speedboats, he said.
By air, 26 drug trafficking operations directed to Cuba were prevented -three of them were hindered abroad-, as a result of which 48.20 kg of drugs were seized, with 61 people arrested, 47 Cubans and 14 foreigners, he said.
Poey Guerra informed that 67 marijuana cultivation events were detected in the country, in which 38,696 plants and 50,235 seeds were seized.
The officer detailed that thanks to the joint action of the Minint and the National Revolutionary Police forces, 3,10 people were charged for Drug Trafficking and Possession in operational and public actions and 158.42 kg of drugs that did not reach the domestic market, more than 81 million pesos and 33 firearms, among other elements, were seized.
He also stated that 83 cases of drug trafficking and consumption were followed up, involving 51 young people and 72 minors, at different educational levels, for which he reaffirmed the importance of the active role of families, schools and communities to contribute to protect the youngest from this scourge.
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