DEA praises TT in heroin ring

The investigation, which spanned a ten-month period and included joint law enforcement operations in the United States, Central and South America and Trinidad and Tobago, resulted in 22 persons being apprehended and charged.

The operation codenamed “Viva Las Vegas,” which was carried out by the US Department of Justice, Organised Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), seized more than US $14 million in heroin in Trinidad and Tobago, Las Vegas, New York and Ecuador and approximately US $220,000 in cash.

The release issued by the DEA said that OCDETF worked closely with its counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago as well as Ecuador, to shut down a “far reaching importation organisation and close its drug pipeline.”

The investigations revealed that couriers smuggled heroin from several foreign countries, including Ecuador, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico to New York for distribution.

The organisation employed more than a dozen couriers and recruiters, many of whom made multiple drug trips and were based mainly in the Las Vegas area.

The defendants if convicted, face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a US $4 million fine.