Back in the late 90's and early two - thousands when there were huge drug busts - like tonnes of cocaine - destroying all that would take a whole day at the furnace - in fact, (true story), one time the police just took a few hundred pounds of cocaine bricks, cut them open and dumped it all in the sea!
But, those mega busts just don't come along anymore - and who knows why...but we do know that the cops have to wait a few years before accumulating enough drugs for a good day at the furnace. Today was one of those days when the national exhibit keeper at the Queen Street station got a few hundred pounds of weed ready for the fire. 7News was there in Orange Walk when it al went up in smoke:...
Jules Vasquez reporting
This morning, a thick plume of marijuana smoke streamed out across the skies over Orange Walk Town.
At this height, probably only birds could get a high from the second hand smoke, but at the furnace, we were feeling the heat first hand.
The drugs come from of over a thousand seizures of found property and cases that have come to completion in the courts, either with a conviction or dismissal.
And now, they're all up in flames. It's all numbered and compiled here in these 50 pages - and carefully monitored by a magistrate, the forensic department, justices of the peace the national exhibit keeper and the media - with the area secured by the mobile interdiction team
Insp. Fitzroy Yearwood, Public relations - Northside
"We destroyed around 836lbs of marijuana, both found property and from cases that have been concluded in front of the court. We destroyed 147.3 grams of crack cocaine and somewhere around 7 utensils used to smoke either crack or marijuana. We refer to it as pipe."
The largest single seizure of found property we saw on the list was 7.7 kilos, and if it fit too tightly in the bucket, well just burn the bucket!
That's the kind of smoke that would make anyone sick!
The largest case that went to court that we saw on the list was for half a kilo - which resulted in a dismissal. Most of the cases are for very small quantities of drugs - most of them less than an ounce.
Basically it's housekeeping - the exhibit keeper's room is just too full:
Insp. Fitzroy Yearwood, Public relations - Northside
"Whenever we see the need for space and we have conclusions or closer for some of the matters in front of the court and we know that we do not need any of the exhibits, we either, if it's in the case of drugs like today, we do the destruction."
And what's the value of all this that went up in smoke?
Insp. Fitzroy Yearwood, Public relations - Northside
"For the marijuana itself, I would say 836 times 2000 at street value, I'm not certain what's the cost of a pound of marijuana these days, but I know that it will be somewhere in the plus of maybe 160,000 or so."
The operation took three hours - and there were just 1,200 items disposed of.
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