CAYMAN ISLANDS POLICE ARREST CANADIAN, EIGHT OTHERS ON DRUG CHARGES

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (AP) - Police have arrested nine people,
including one Canadian, on charges of running a drug trafficking ring in
the Cayman Islands and Florida.

After a seven-month undercover operation, police arrested five Jamaicans,
two Americans, one Canadian and one Cayman Islander during a series of
stings last week targetting a drug ring based in Jamaica's northwestern
Montego Bay, police Supt. Derek Haines announced Tuesday.

Several Cayman Islands police officers went undercover as drug traffickers,
meeting with suspected drug ring members in the United States and Jamaica,
Haines said.

Five suspects were arrested in the Cayman Islands and four were arrested in
Florida. Haines would not identify those arrested or in which cities they
were detained, saying investigations are continuing.

Officers arrested three alleged members of the ring, two Jamaicans and one
Canadian, in the Cayman Islands May 19 while they were trying to deliver
545 kilograms of marijuana in a motorboat, police said.

The Canadian was wanted on U.S. and Canadian warrants, Haines said. Police
would not identify him or give his hometown.

A 636-kilogram load of marijuana, apparently a lost shipment from the same
drug ring, had washed up on a beach on Small Cayman a few days earlier,
Haines said.

On June 3, U.S. officials arrested two Jamaicans and two Americans in
Florida during a suspected delivery of a large amount of marijuana and five
kilos of cocaine related to the drug ring, he said.

On Friday, Caymanian police also arrested a Cayman Islands resident on
charges of possessing 36 kilograms of marijuana. A Jamaican was also
arrested, but police have not specified the charges against him.