A Bermudian man was arrested by the US Coast Guard off the Bahamas with what is thought to be $45 million-worth of cannabis.

The 34-year-old and another man whose age and nationality have not been disclosed were stopped on their American-registered private vessel on January 5.

Almost two thousand pounds of cannabis was found onboard, which has an approximate street value in Bermuda of $45,555,357.

Law enforcement agencies confirmed yesterday that the drug shipment was headed to Bermuda and that no information was released before because of the ongoing investigation.

The amount on the vessel, however, is almost double that seized by Police in Bermuda in 2006, which according to the National Drug Master Plan was a total of 1,043 pounds of cannabis.

Both men have already appeared in a Florida court and they remain in custody.

The investigation is being led by the FBI authorities in Florida and is supported by the Bermuda Police Service and other jurisdictions.

In 2002, another Bermudian, Winston Franklin Robinson, formerly of Mangrove Bay, was arrested on June 25 with five other men, after the Dutch Coast Guard intercepted his boat 35 nautical miles from the small, related Dutch Antilles island of Saba near St. Maarten.

He was given a 16 month prison sentence in St. Maarten for 10,000 pounds of cannabis with a street value of less than $2 million on that Island, but would have been more than $200 million in Bermuda.

Robinson had also been tied to the Bermuda trial of Kirk Roberts, of West Side Road, Sandys in the summer of 2002.

It emerged that Robinson had been on the sailboat which delivered 200 pounds of cannabis to Roberts in Bermuda in December 2000.

Roberts had supported both Robinson and a German sailboat owner through monetary wire transfers as they sailed the Caribbean in search of drugs for months, the Roberts' jury heard.

Roberts received a ten-year prison term for conspiracy to import cannabis to Bermuda in 2002.

Yesterday a Police spokesperson commenting on the recent arrest of a Bermudian said: "This seizure highlights the continued determined efforts by those involved in drug smuggling to bring drugs to Bermuda.

"It also exemplifies the international nature of this insidious criminality and the complex nature of law enforcement operations needed to combat it.

"This significant success is a credit to law enforcement cooperation and the commitment and effort of Bermuda Police Service personnel."