Improvements at the Bridgetown Port credited with million-dollar drug find

The high-tech security system at the Bridgetown Port is taking a big bite out of the profits of drug runners trying to sneak contraband into Barbados.

That is according to Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy, Kirk Humphrey, who today revealed that $1 million in illegal drugs had been seized by authorities at the port within the last month.

Speaking in Parliament on the facilitation of the International Maritime Traffic Bill, 2021, Humphrey said the port’s security system had been significantly bolstered.

In fact, he gave the assurance that by the end of the year the port would have the most sophisticated security system in the country.

“When we came into office there were 52 cameras in the Bridgetown Port and of those 52 cameras, 22 were not working. We currently now have 88 views in the Bridgetown Port. Phase 2, which is being implemented now, will see an additional 117 cameras being put in the Bridgetown Port. So we’re talking about where we had 30 cameras, we will have approximately 200 cameras in the Bridgetown Port. Tell me that we are not taking security seriously,” Humphrey said.

“With those 200 or more cameras in the Bridgetown Port, I can easily say to you that we will have probably the most advanced monitoring and tracking system utilizing artificial intelligence…”

The minister said using artificial intelligence, the security system was able to track movement in “the still of the night.” He said that had resulted in persons being brought before the law courts for engaging in illegal activities.

“Those men were brought before the court. We’re not playing. Our new $20 million scanner was able to pick up contraband in a tank, in a container that previously we could not have picked up. Of course, when we held the guy that was up to his dastardly behaviour we were able then to find some additional things, but we also found drugs attached to the hull of a ship.

“So that the port using its technology has been able to solve some of these things. By December 2021, the port will have the most advanced CCTV system in the entire country. It is the use of these technologies operated by the port which has been exposed to all kinds of specialized training that has resulted in the interdiction of about $1 million in contraband in the last month alone,” Humphrey said.

“That is because of the systems that we have put in place. We are taking this security thing extremely seriously. We have gone from having 30 functional cameras to having about 200 by the end of the year; from having a system that would be the joke of people to having the most sophisticated system, we believe, by the end of this year. We are not playing.”

Humphrey noted that there had also been other significant improvements at the Bridgetown Port.

According to him, the truck turnaround time at the facility had dropped from 70 minutes to 40 minutes while dwell times for containers had also been reduced from 12 days to six days and was actually headed towards four days before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

Additionally, Minister Humphrey said 90 per cent of the paper which was being used in the port had been eliminated.

He said the improvement and efficiencies had been noticed as the Bridgetown Port had been re-elected as the chair of the Technical Advisory Committee on Port Security under the OAS [Organisation of American States].

“In every manner and every regard we have not only treated seriously to security, we have also treated seriously to training and invariably and ultimately the efficiency,” Humphrey said. (randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)