Force assisted in foreign drug busts - police
227 kilos cocaine seized at Timehri airport last year
Stabroek News
March 13, 2004
The Guyana Police Force has assisted several foreign law enforcement agencies with intelligence and drug investigations and has also provided information that led to cocaine seizures, according to a release from the Public Relation Department of the force.
According to the release, two of the cases the force assisted in investigating were in the United Kingdom.
The release said information provided by members of the force motivated the search of a container of rice intended for Ghana and shipped from Guyana, in which 44 kilogrammes of cocaine was seized in the UK. This matter, in addition to being investigated overseas, was probed by the local force and this is still in the progress.
The GPF also assisted the United Kingdom Customs in developing intelligence on a foreign drug trafficking group prior to the arrests of its senior members after 120 kilogrammes of cocaine were seized in the UK in a shipment of lumber from Guyana. "The police further assisted the UK customs with related investigation in Guyana," the release said. With respect to these two investigations, the police have been criticised for not being able to charge those based here who might have aided and abetted the shipments.
The release, issued yesterday, appeared to be in direct response to the US State Department report in which it was concluded that Guyana is a prime target for money laundering and drug trafficking given weak laws, corrupt law enforcement and the continuing political stalemate.
The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) 2003, part of which was published in this newspaper, described Guyana "as a transshipment point for South American cocaine destined for North America and Europe."
The force in the release said that given Guyana's vast unprotected borders and airspace coupled with the limited resources, successes achieved by it in the fight against illicit narcotics are significant, especially when compared with the high-tech equipment and other resources available to the law enforcement agencies in developed countries.
In addition, the police said it participates in formulating regional strategies to combat drug trafficking both at the level of Drug Squad Com-manders and the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police. It was stated that members of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Caribbean Field Division along with members of other law enforcement agencies in the United States and other countries participate fully in those processes, as well as in the implementation of those strategies.
"Resulting from such strategies is the sharing of information on drugs among Law Enforcement Agencies in the region and to which the Guyana Police Force is linked to regional law enforcement. The Guyana Police Force and other local agencies participate," the release said.
The release said Guyana's Anti-Narcotics strategy commenced in 1988 with the signing of the 1988 United Na-tions Vienna Convention on the control of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and its ratification by the enactment of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Sub-stance (Control) Act 1988.
The act was amended in 1999 to give the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) the authority to enforce it. The release reminded that Guyana also enacted the Money Laundering Prevention Act in 2002, and has taken several initiatives towards drug prevention and rehabilitation. Critics have pointed out that several years later the money laundering act is still to be activated and the required drug rehabilitation facilities are not in place.
According to the release CANU is a relatively young organisation with which the police force has been fostering an alignment towards the fight against illicit drugs. The force, the release said, has been focusing on supply reduction with a number of agencies, particularly CANU.
Among other things the INCSR had stated that there seemed to be a great deal of mistrust between the CANU officers and the police resulting in unsatisfactory intelligence/information and the antiquated legal system continues to hinder prosecution.
The police release said it has specialised units deployed strategically to address the drug problem and as a result a total of 226 kilogrammes, 965 grammes of cocaine were seized at the airport in 2003. Fourteen Guyanese nationals and 11 foreigners were arrested at the airport. "The conclusion that more foreigners than Guyanese were arrested is therefore inaccurate." The US report had stated that the great majority of the arrest of couriers at the airport has been foreigners, although most travellers are Guyanese. Police critics have said that while couriers have been held the drug lords have escaped prosecution.
In addition to seizures made at the airport, members of the force seized eight kilos, 347 grammes of cocaine and charged 80 persons with related offences during 2003. They have also, for the same period, destroyed 35 acres of cannabis cultivation, charged 11 persons with cultivation of the drug, and seized 378 kilos, 577 grammes of cannabis for which 365 persons were charged.
The force said it will continue to collaborate with local and foreign agencies especially CANU in combating "this scourge in Guyana."