PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Police say they have held one suspect and seized nearly half a million dollars (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) worth of cocaine at the Piarco International Airport in Trinidad over the last weekend.

In a statement, the police said that the drugs worth TT$473,932 were discovered hidden in a vehicle at the airport during an anti-crime exercise conducted in the Northern and North Central Divisions from last Friday.

“The search of a vehicle resulted in the officers finding one bag containing a quantity of cocaine with an estimated street value of TT$473,932.80. One suspect was arrested in connection with the find.”

The statement said that the officers also conducted the exercise on the outskirts of the airport where they searched several vehicles and persons.

Police said that an AR-15 assault rifle was among three firearms and quantities of ammunition seized by officers during weekend exercises in several divisions.

They said acting on intelligence, they conducted an anti-crime exercise in Freeport, west central Trinidad, where they proceeded to a bushy area resulting in the discovery of one AR-15 assault rifle loaded with a magazine containing 14 rounds of 5.56 ammunition.

Police said they also discovered a pistol loaded with a magazine containing one round of ammunition in Diego Martin.

They said they also found one pistol, five rounds of ammunition and a quantity of cannabis hidden in an abandoned structure in Santa Cruz on the outskirts of the capital.