When US law enforcement officials paid a flying visit to Guyana last month seeking to clear the way for the extradition of around 16 Guyanese drug trafficking/money laundering suspects it firmly established one thing.
It should now be clear to all of us that in the foreseeable future the prosecution of the major players in the Guyana drug trade won't be done at the Georgetown Magistrate's Court but in some court in one of the New York boroughs or some other place abroad. In a way, that is not a bad thing for Guyana. If everything went to plan we would be surrendering to the Americans suspects who on the face of it have played integral parts in shipping out cocaine, laundering proceeds and engaging in collateral narco crimes that shred the fabric of society and the rule of law.
Secondly, we would be maximising the chances of the successful prosecution of these persons. It is no secret that were these principals to be charged and prosecuted in Guyana their chances of acquittal would be quite high. There is a well-tested recipe that has worked in drug cases and other high-profile prosecutions. Hire a local legal eagle and everything else falls into place. The police prosecutor or even the special prosecutor hired would be hopelessly upstaged, a stream of incompetent and perjurious policemen would testify, witnesses would be mercilessly bullied on the stand, exhibits would mysteriously disappear or be irretrievably tampered with and in the end the decision goes in the favour of the accused. No serious plan by foreign agencies to snare drug criminals will envisage major prosecution in this jurisdiction.
Thirdly, as of now we simply lack the infrastructure and law enforcement integrity and strength to handle these prosecutions. There is no witness protection programme. Caricom has spoken about this preliminarily and at its leisurely Sunday stroll pace it will be at least a decade before there is some agreed programme. In addition, the investigative capacity of the police force has been severely degraded, its forensics capacity is way behind the times and intelligence gathering and undercover operations hopelessly deficient. Furthermore, the corruption in the Guyana Police Force and other law enforcement agencies would make it difficult to put together cases from scratch and expect them to hold together. To make matters worse, the explosive range of serious crimes recently, murder-for-hire schemes and suspect prison security make it unlikely that the law enforcement system could withstand and defeat armed challenges by the gangs associated with the drug traffickers/launderers aimed at thwarting prosecution.
Our incapacity and incompetence in these matters must not continue and we must begin now to chart a different course. We will always be grateful to the US for the help they provide in drug interdiction and related matters. However, we do not want the US or anyone else for that matter to be the ultimate arbiter of who should be prosecuted for drug crimes or when. Their interests and motivations won't always coincide with ours and history teaches us that US law enforcement policy as it relates to foreign targets is motivated by several objectives the primary one being the preservation of US interests even if these trespass on the honouring of international obligations or require turning a blind eye to other violations of law.
Moreover, those drug traffickers in our midst, who do not necessarily threaten US interests and who are not in their sights will be free to continue their insidious trade and attack the foundations of law enforcement unhindered. There continues to be evidence of this. Those branches of the drug trade recently involved in the smuggling of cocaine in timber and rice to the United Kingdom remain untouched as do others judging by the expansion of their front organisations here.
We have to shake off the lethargy and start enforcing laws that we pass. In the instant case which has given rise to the imminent extradition requests, US law enforcement authorities conducted surveillance over a lengthy period and checked financial and other records dating back to 1986. They found, not surprisingly, that large amounts of cash had been fearlessly transported here in suitcases, food containers and via money transfer agencies. The ability to gather information on transactions that point to laundering and the enforcement of accompanying legislation such as currency laws are vital weapons in the fight against the drug traffickers. Each one of those trips where couriers carried laundered cash on behalf of a dummy company should have been picked up in Guyana and queried. If the cash wasn't declared it should have been found. Quite obviously, there should also have been a closer sharing of information between US and Guyanese authorities on these suspicious transactions but nothing was done. Needless to say, we don't have a dossier on these transactions and are not in a position to mount a prosecution.
Our anti money-laundering legislation requires the operation of a robust financial intelligence unit but to date that unit is still to be empowered. Meanwhile the flurry of suspicious transactions which involve foreign currency continues unabated through a range of intermediaries, helping ironically to boost the availability of foreign currency on the local market with its attendant benefits. The government has defaulted seriously in its responsibilities here and it must act decisively. It must also ensure that the police force under relatively new command is given the mandate to pursue the drug lords and that every effort is made to prosecute them locally and to crush their operations. Failure to do this will pockmark the entire society with criminal cells that intertwine with terrorism financing and other unthinkable dangers.
Until we can become credible fighters against the rapacious drug trade, the fullest co-operation must be availed to the US authorities in ensuring the extradition of those against whom solid evidence exists.