Earlier today, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer was a featured speaker at the 27th Meeting of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP), in Nassau, Bahamas. Also speaking today was Miami DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Mark Trouville, who discussed the emerging drug trafficking trends in the Caribbean Basin.

The ACCP is made up of police commissioners from Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, French Antilles, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Suriname, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

At today’s conference, Mr. Ferrer discussed the Southern District of Florida’s Caribbean Basin Initiative, the only one of its kind in the U.S. designed to specifically target narcotics traffickers who use the Caribbean Basin as a trans-shipment point for drugs entering the United States. Since the U.S. Attorney launched the Caribbean Basin Initiative in August 2011, the Southern District of Florida has charged 125 defendants who attempted to use the Caribbean Basin to further their narco-trafficking activities. Mr. Ferrer also highlighted the District's successful efforts to combat human trafficking.