NASSAU, Bahamas, Jul 28, CMC – Bahamian law enforcement agencies say they have detained 54 Haitian migrants, including a three-year-old child and drugs after intercepting their vessel on Sunday in the Exumas.
“United States partners provided updated intelligence regarding a vessel suspected of transporting migrants and illegal drugs in the vicinity of Ship Channel Cay and Beacon Cay,” the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) said.
The RBDF said that it had dispatched the HMBS Maderia along with US air assets and personnel from the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park to search the area and early Monday found the vessel near Norman’s Cay and Wax Cay.
Officers, who boarded the vessel, found 54 Haitian migrants including six women and the three-year-old girl as well as two bales of suspected marijuana and 10 bricks of suspected cocaine.
The migrants and drugs were taken to the force’s Coral Harbour Base for processing.
Meanwhile, the RBDF said together with the US Coast Guard, they seized a Bahamian-registered vessel and recovered 97 bales of suspected hydroponic marijuana that weighed 2,318 pounds with an estimated street value of US$5.9 million.
The RBDF said that three Bahamian men, ages 35, 46, and 55, who were on the 35-foot go-fast vessel had been arrested and that the operation was a two-day affair that started last Friday.
“Once we received that alert, the US deployed and mobilized various air assets. The Royal Bahamas Police Force also mobilized units, and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force alerted our safest assets inside the north, south, and central Bahamas to be properly positioned to be prepared to intercept this narco go-fast vessel.
“Twenty-four hours later, sometime in the early morning of Saturday the 25th, the US air asset detected the go-fast vessel that was making its way towards Bahamian territory and waters.
“The vessel would have entered Bahamian territory and waters, noticed that they were detected, and they would have started to deviate to alter their course to enter back into international waters.
“The Bahamas Defence Force granted permission to the US Coast Guard that had a cutter in the nearby area to … conduct a boarding and search of that vessel. That boarding and search represented what we have here today, a successful interdiction of a large quantity of suspected marijuana with three persons on board.”
CMC/ah/ir/2026