THE police yesterday seized more than 3,000 pounds of cocaine, with a street value of over half a billion Jamaican dollars in what the authorities say is the island’s biggest drug bust ever.

Four persons, including a policeman and a man suspected to be a Colombian, were held in the pre-dawn operation near Port Royal, the 17th century pirate haunt that was dubbed the wickedest city in the world until its destruction by an earthquake in 1692. The town is on a peninsular that partially encloses Kingston Harbour.

The police said that two men who were onboard the 30-foot Go-Fast boat that brought the cocaine from Colombia, escaped in nearby mangrove. It was not immediately clear how this happened when the boat was apparently being tracked by a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) helicopter.

The cocaine and the vessel apart, the police also seized two 9mm handguns, eight magazines for the guns, navigational instruments, satellite telephones and coastal maps.

The bust, according to the head of the narcotics police, Carl Williams, was the result of collaboration between Jamaican law enforcement and the Colombian National Police and was being seen yesterday as a hurtful hit against a gang of international drug runners.

“We hope that through this operation we have put a dent on their operations into Jamaica,” Williams said.

According to Williams, the Jamaican authorities were informed on Monday that the boat with the contraband had left Colombia for Jamaica.

Jamaica and Colombia recently signed a bilateral accord for their law enforcement agencies to share information on drug smuggling and money laundering.

“We set up people all over the country looking out for the boat,” Williams said. “We saturated all the likely areas where the stuff might be off-loaded. Our people were spread out thinly.”

About 4:00 am yesterday, a JDF helicopter intercepted the Colombian boat while it was being moored into a swamp area off the main road. But according to Williams, when the police closed in the occupants ran.

However, the other suspected members of the drug cartel ran into the police dragnet along the Palisadoes main road near the Port Royal cemetery.

The boat turned out to have been transporting 52 bales of cocaine weighing 3,395 pounds with a street value of US$12.3 million or J$594 million.

Until now the biggest cocaine bust in Jamaica was 10 months ago in Bluefields, Westmoreland when police seized 2,150 pounds of cocaine, said to be worth J$320 million.

The names of the four persons who were detained yesterday were being withheld, but the policeman was said to be from the St Catherine South Division.

They were not actually held at the site where the boat came ashore, but were, in fact, picked up during a police search of the general area.

“They were caught on the road but we are satisfied that these people will be able to help us in our investigations,” Williams said

He also said that two vehicles, a Nissan pick-up truck registered 7308 DH and a Honda Civic motor car registered 2755 DU, were “connected to the suspects” and were seized while parked at Port Royal.