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The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) played a crit­i­cal role in the seizure of over US$25 mil­lion in co­caine and the ar­rest of three for­eign na­tion­als dur­ing a mar­itime op­er­a­tion off the coast of Por­tu­gal ear­li­er this month, ac­cord­ing to a re­lease from the U.S. Em­bassy in Port of Spain.

The state­ment said the op­er­a­tion stemmed from months of col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween agents from the U.S. Drug En­force­ment Ad­min­is­tra­tion (DEA) based at the Em­bassy and of­fi­cers from the TTPS Vet­ted Unit, the Transna­tion­al Or­ga­nized Crime Unit (TOCU), and the Sea­port Co­op­er­a­tion Project (SEA­COP). The co­or­di­nat­ed ef­fort led to the seizure of 1,660 kilo­grammes of co­caine and the ar­rest of three crew mem­bers aboard a sail­boat that de­part­ed Trinidad in ear­ly June.

The ves­sel was in­ter­cept­ed by the Por­tuguese Navy and the Por­tuguese Ju­di­cial Po­lice on June 14 near the Azores Arch­i­pel­ago. The three men ar­rest­ed, all for­eign na­tion­als aged be­tween 43 and 51, are now in cus­tody.