Cocaine overboard!
Guyana Chronicle
January 6, 2007
THE Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) yesterday dumped 67.6 kilogrammes of cocaine with a street value of US$1.69M (G$338M) into the Atlantic Ocean, some 15 miles offshore Guyana.
The cocaine dumped was seized in cases already concluded in the Magistrates Courts and it is understood that the remainder of the cocaine seized by CANU over the years will be disposed of when those cases are completed.
Senior Supervisor at CANU, Mr. Dennis Mahase told reporters accompanying the heavily armed team of CANU officers on the dumping exercise in the Atlantic Ocean, that field tests were done to ascertain the authenticity of the cocaine before it was dumped.
The cocaine destroyed was found by CANU officers over a three year period at various ports and transit points across Guyana, especially at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport at Timehri, and the wharves.
The cocaine was ingeniously concealed in a variety of ways and means, including in cabbage, rum, letters, footwear, false-bottoms on luggage, cosmetics and creams, bicycle grease, packets of ‘coffee’ and pellets swallowed by drug mules.
Two bottles of rum – one XM 10 Year Old and El Dorado 15 Year Old – contained liquid cocaine and these were also destroyed.
Mahase said CANU has been and will continue to stage a committed and intense battle against the narco-trade and drug trafficking scourge plaguing Guyana and eating away at the very fabric of the Guyanese society.
Alluding to the many inroads and successes by CANU over the years in the battle against the drug scourge, he and his colleagues expressed disappointment that many of these drug busts go unnoticed and unheralded – sometimes by the media and most times by those in authority.
Citing the constant dangers that officers face daily on the job, the CANU official appealed to the relevant authorities to show more appreciation for the hard and committed work by the officers in extremely dangerous situations.
He said this appreciation can best be given in a tangible way, especially if it is in the form of an increase in salary or a financial incentive.
However, Mahase remained adamant that he and other officers from CANU will continue to work even harder to stretch the long arms of the law in the fight against narco-trafficking in Guyana.
Established in 1995 in a bid to step up the fight against narco-trafficking, CANU has developed a good working relationship with the Guyana Police Force, and other regional and international anti-narcotic agencies.
Each year officers from CANU undergo intense training in narcotic investigations.
They benefit from training organised by the Caribbean Regional Drug Law Enforcement Centre (REDTRACK) in Jamaica, and in Trinidad and Tobago, the United States and Brazil.
The training includes basic and advanced narco-training and crime analysis.
The dumping operation began early yesterday morning when CANU officials showed members of the media the cocaine to be destroyed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The illegal drug, concealed in various forms and paraphernalia, was placed in five bags.
Bag number one contained 15.7 kilogrammes of cocaine, bag two had 13.7 kilogrammes, bag number three contained 17.2 kilogrammes, bag four 13.4 kilogrammes and bag five 7.6 kilogrammes of cocaine.
The cocaine was then transferred from the CANU office on Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown to the old Transport Wharf in Kingston from where the team of CANU officers, accompanied by six media personnel, proceeded to sea on board a relatively large local marine vessel.
The serious and rigorous exercise lasted a few hours, by which time the entire media team was on an unintentional ‘high’ - due to the inhalation of the cocaine powder in the air as the packets in which they were concealed were opened by the CANU ranks.
By the time the exercise was completed, even some of the CANU officers were on a high, one of whom was forced to lie on the floor of the vessel to take a ‘nap’.
Included in the cocaine dumped yesterday were the more than 10 kilogrammes unearthed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport on August 18 last year, stuffed in cabbages.
The cocaine, in pellets, was discovered in the cabbages a woman was taking with her as she was about to board a flight to Canada.
Over the years smugglers have used innovative ways to ship illegal drugs out of the country with some resorting to rum, timber and coconuts.
The last time CANU dumped cocaine in the Atlantic Ocean was on November 17, 2004.
On that occasion, 59 kilogrammes of cocaine and 600 grammes of heroin were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean, some 18-1/2 miles offshore Guyana.