Rio Claro–Mayaro
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| Rio Claro–Mayaro | |
|---|---|
| ActiveCannabis last recorded here in 2026 | |
| Geography | |
| Country | Trinidad and Tobago |
| Coordinates | 10.3058, -61.1739 |
| Landscape | |
| Terrain | Rain forest and farmland of south-eastern Trinidad round Rio Claro, Biche, Mayaro and Guayaguayare |
| Growing history | |
| Dated news reports | 2020–2026 |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Rio Claro–Mayaro is a cannabis growing area in the rain forests of south-eastern Trinidad, round the towns of Rio Claro and Mayaro. The anthropologist Ansley Hamid lived in a growing village near Rio Claro in the 1970s, where Indian smallholders had begun to grow ganja in 1960.[1]: xxiii, 38–39 Since 2020 the police have destroyed fields and grow houses at Mayaro, Biche and Rio Claro.[2][3][4]
Geography
Rio Claro is the seat of the region of Mayaro–Rio Claro. Mayaro lies on the east coast, Guayaguayare at the island's south-eastern corner, and Biche inland to the north of Rio Claro. The forests that growers named to Hamid in the 1970s were those of Guayaguayare, Mayaro, Biche and Nariva.[1]: 40–41
History
The growers Hamid studied in 1975–1978 were Indians who had left the sugar plantations of the central Naparimas to settle close to the rain forests of the south-east.[1]: 38 In a village of ninety-eight households near Rio Claro, a man and a neighbour began growing together in 1960, with seed his uncle had obtained in Port of Spain. By 1970 nearly everyone in the village grew ganja; Hamid counted the village among the earliest to begin.[1]: 38–39 He thought that growing and use might have survived there in secret since the 1900s.[1]: 39 The middle-aged Indian growers did not use the ganja they grew and disapproved of its use by their adolescent sons, who had learned to smoke ganja from young Africans living nearby.[1]: xxiv
The crop was planted at least twice a year on plots cleared in the rain forest and tended by camps of growers and their sons, who stayed weeks in the forest to weed, water and guard the plants. The best crop was planted in June and July and harvested in December. Plantations rarely went beyond 2,000 plants, a size first reached in the early 1970s.[1]: 40 Many growers meant to stop once they had earned enough for a legal business, such as a farm, a bar or a poolhall, so villages went in and out of growing quickly.[1]: 39 Dealers came from San Fernando to buy wholesale,[1]: xxiii and the growers would not sell less than a pound at a time.[1]: 40
A grower and middleman told Hamid that growing had spread to Guayaguayare and Biche, and that a man going to the forests of Guayaguayare, Mayaro, Biche or Nariva would find virgin forest there.[1]: 40–41 Hamid lists Mayaro, Guayaguayare and Biche among the other growing villages of the time.[1]: 43 By the late 1970s members of four of the Rastafari "blocks" of San Fernando had moved to settlements close to the south-eastern rain forests, where they grew marijuana.[1]: 85
Fields reported since 2000
- September 2020, Mayaro: about 10,000 fully grown trees, 5,000 seedlings and 136 kilograms of cured marijuana; the police found two makeshift camps.[2]
- October 2024, Mayaro district: a field of some 250 fully grown trees and about 750 seedlings.[5]
- January 2026, Biche: two grow houses holding 6,000 fully grown trees, several kilometres into dense forest, equipped with irrigation, solar panels and fertiliser.[3]
- July 2026, Rio Claro forest: a field and a grow house on about half a lot of land, with solar-powered lighting, water tanks and drying racks; 200 fully grown plants and 160 seedlings were destroyed.[4]
Appellations
No appellations documented yet.
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Hamid, Ansley (2002). The Ganja Complex: Rastafari and Marijuana. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. ISBN 0-7391-0360-1. LCCN 2002004715.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Mayaro Police make huge marijuana bust". Trinidad Guardian. 16 September 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Police Seize Over $7M in Cannabis, Arrest Two in Nationwide Operations". TTT News. 9 January 2026. Retrieved 3 November 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Police destroy $200k cannabis field and grow house in Rio Claro". Trinidad Guardian. 29 July 2026. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ "4 arrested as cops seize firearms, destroy cannabis in anti-crime exercises". Trinidad Guardian. 15 October 2024. Retrieved 3 November 2026.