Operation Joint Controls
Between Thursday September 11th and Friday September 12th a joint general control was held on the island of Sint Eustatius by the local Police Dept. and members of the Zero Tolerance team of Sint Maarten, in collaboration with members of the Customs Dept. and the Coast Guard of the Neth. Antilles and Aruba, members of the Volentary Korps of Statia and the Marechaussee These controls was organized by the acting Division head of Statia Inspector Quintin ROGERS and headed by Chief Inspector Carl JOHN, assisted by Inspector Ricardo HENSON. The Lt. Governor/ Local Chief of Statia Mr. H. GITTENS and the Public Prosecutor Van der HORDE
These controls were carried out in the territorial waters of Sint Eustatius by the Coast Guard, checking all tankers anchored at the Statia Terminal and also all incoming and departing cargo and passenger vessels. The Coast Guard did their controls concerning all issues that pertaining to their Dept. The custom dept. with their K-9 unit did their searches at the harbor and airport checking mostly incoming vessels and flights in connection with illegal drugs and weapons.
Traffic controls and immigration controls were also carried out whereby several fines were issued to drivers who were in violation with the Traffic Ordinance and persons whose documents were not in order to reside or work on the island.
These controls were in the making for quite some time, by the local police dept., but due to unforeseen circumstances they could not have been carried out before. The focus of these controls are to increase the sense of security and safety among the citizens of Statia.
The Commissioner of Police Mr. A. DORAN in charge of the Judicial and Immigration Dept. in Sint Maarten and who was also in Statia on a working visit, which was not related to these controls, went to several of the sites where the controls were taking place, to give his support.
The Police Dept. of Statia would like to thank the community of Statia for their cooperation and promised to continue with these type of controls to keep "The Golden Rock" as safe as possible.