Catching shrimps while sharks swim away
Editorial
Kaieteur News
December 7, 2006
The outcome of a major ‘drug and arms' court case that ended this week is extremely disturbing because it is yet another case of Guyana catching the tiny shrimps of the illegal drugs and arms trade while the huge sharks swim away with absolute impunity.
The case ended when Magistrate Oneidge Walrond-Allicock sentenced a 24-year-old Georgetown woman to a total of 13 years jail for possession of illegal firearms and explosives, and having cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. The woman, Rhonda Gomes, had pleaded guilty to the charges and responded to her sentence calmly while her relatives and friends wept uncontrollably. For an entirely different reason, all right-thinking Guyanese could also have shed many bitter tears.
They could have wept bitterly because the outcome of the case amounts to a significant victory for drug lords and their associates, with only one small consolation for the police and law-abiding citizens. From the presentations of the prosecutors as well as the lawyers for the defence, it is clear to everyone that Rhonda Gomes is only a shrimp and not a shark in the illegal trade in drugs and arms. Everyone knows that she took the rap for the real perpetrators.
For many years, every local and international report on crime has indicated that Guyana has become an important link used by multi-national crime networks for trafficking illegal drugs, arms and other nefarious activities. Investigations of these criminal activities in Guyana are some of the most time consuming and resource depleting activities of the Guyana Police Force (GPF). Yet, in all those years, local police have caught mostly the minnows of these criminal enterprises and not the kingpins.
There are too many cases in Guyana in which lowly ‘drug mules' and the like have been arrested, questioned and prosecuted without this process yielding any arrests higher up the underworld chain of command. It seems that when the police catch the foot soldiers of the narco-trade, they simply plead guilty and take their sentences without this having any noticeable impact on the criminal activities of their associates. These cases cannot make meaningful inroads into the illegal drug and arms operations in Guyana .
While sentencing Rhonda Gomes, Magistrate Walrond-Allicock made a powerful statement related to something many persons think is the only consolation in the outcome of the case. The magistrate observed, “The increase in violence and carnage in our society would not flourish unless the drug kingpin or the criminal emboldened by the use of illegal arms and ammunition received the support and enablement from persons like the defendant.” Therefore, it is a small consolation that she jailed Gomes for this.
This consolation is not sufficient to offset the profound disappointment many persons feel that the police have not yet found the person or persons who are really behind the arms and explosives cache and the illegal drugs. It is exceptionally difficult to arrest criminal masterminds who hide behind several layers of fear and corruption, and who have the resources to engage an array of skillful and high-priced lawyers at a moment's notice. But it is imperative to do everything possible to break down these barriers.
Unfortunately, it does not seem that the authorities in Guyana are doing everything possible. For instance, it is taking them an eternity to upgrade the level of investigative and intelligence-gathering skills of the police force. Also, they have not effectively addressed the clear imbalance in skills between the state prosecutors and defence lawyers or defendants in high-profile drugs and arms cases. Further, an appropriate witness protection programme is long overdue.
Clearly, Guyana cannot be content to fry the shrimps of the illegal drugs and arms trade while the sharks get away. Unless the nation takes forceful, proactive action to go after the players and not the pawns, it is doomed to remain riddled with crime and endure all the attendant consequences.