Law enforcement agencies in Trinidad have completed a major eradication operation against illegal cannabis cultivation, destroying roughly 5,000 mature cannabis plants with an estimated street value of $5 million in the Moruga region earlier this week. The coordinated crackdown, launched under the leadership of Assistant Commissioner of Police Tewarie from the Criminal Investigations Branch, brought together multiple specialized units to target the unlicensed growing site hidden in remote terrain.
Officers from three divisions – the elite Jungle Operations Team, the Southern Division Task Force, and local Moruga Police Station personnel – penetrated the dense La Lune forest to reach the plantation on Tuesday. To help locate the illicit growing plots that were intentionally tucked away in isolated woodland, the operation received critical support from the Police Aerial Unit, which deployed surveillance drones to map the area and spot the hidden fields from above.
The aerial surveillance proved pivotal: it allowed teams to pinpoint two separate cannabis growing areas that spanned a combined total of roughly one and a half acres of forest land. Once located, officers confirmed that all 5,000 plants found on the site were fully grown and ready for distribution to the illegal drug market. Rather than removing the plants one by one, law enforcement carried out controlled burns to destroy the entire crop on site.
Beyond the cannabis plants themselves, officers also disposed of a range of infrastructure used to sustain the illegal operation. This included multiple water containers that cultivators had set up to irrigate the plants, as well as assorted cultivation tools and equipment. As of the conclusion of the exercise, no suspects had been apprehended at the site, and police have not announced any updates on ongoing investigations to identify the operators of the plantation.