KINGSTON, Jamaica — Attorney-at-law Marcus Goffe, a member of the Rastafari community, has walked back the comments he made earlier this week that the narcotics police had misplaced 124 pounds of ganja belonging to his client, Andy Blake, owner/representative of a Rastafarian organisation, Zion Yard.

There is no missing ganja, Goffe asserted.

“I spoke to the Clerk of the Court and we are satisfied that a clerical error caused the confusion,” Goffe said.

“The ganja seized was not weighed in Mr Blake’s presence. However, having reconciled the amount of ganja charged in court with the available documentation from the police, we are satisfied that all the ganja seized was returned. We look forward to meeting with the narcotics police soon to discuss other ganja-policing concerns of the Rastafari community,” Goffe said.

Earlier this week, Goffe had threatened legal action after a judge had ordered a quantity of seized ganja, 295 pounds, to be returned to the client when the prosecution offered no evidence. He claimed that the narcotics police had been unable to account for 124 pounds of ganja which had not been returned.

According to the documents from the Firearms and Narcotics Investigation Division (FNID), three packages labelled A, B and C, collectively weighing 123 and four parcels, which together weighed 49 pounds, were returned for a total of 172 pounds.

“The error on the path of the defendants is to add 123 pounds from the first sample and the total overall sample of 172 pounds which gave them a total of 295 pounds, that was incorrect,” a source with the FNID said.

READ: Cops ordered to return 295 pounds of ganja to Rastafarians…but 124 pounds ‘missing’

The FNID has been leading the charge in disrupting the flow of illegal weapons and narcotics. FNID operates under the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC) with a special focus on dismantling the criminal networks that fuel serious and violent crime.

The FNID has been doing an exemplary job in disrupting criminal activity, racking up major seizures over the last year, confiscating 26,241.20 kilograms of ganja since 2025 (57,852 pounds) and an impressive total of 21,014.33 kilograms (46,329 pounds) for 2024.  The marked increase in 2025 represents a 20 per cent increase over the total seized in 2024.

The estimated street value of ganja in the drugs for gun trade is an average $3000 per pound. The currency of ganja is a huge component in the ganja-for-guns trade, where it is estimated that 50 pounds of ganja can purchase one handgun, while 100 pounds of ganja is the market price for one rifle.

Police theorise that ganja is being used as currency for drugs, and therefore, the cultivation and possession of ganja remains a serious public safety issue.

The FNID has also seized 821.40 kilograms of cocaine (1811 pounds) valued at $410,700,000 (500,000 per kilogram) as well as 419 firearms of the total 864 seized by the Jamaica Constabulary Force, accounting for 49 per cent of these efforts.

– Claude Mills