Drug activities responsible for most deportations
Kaieteur News
April 4, 2007
There has been a consistent trek of deportees from foreign lands to this country. The most recent batch comprises 13 who were shipped home during the past two years for crimes ranging from drug offences to attempted robbery.
According to the police three persons were deported between June and July 2005, two from the United States and one from Suriname after they were found to be in possession of ‘drugs'.
On June 27, 2005 a 22-year-old East Bank Demerara resident was deported from the United States after he was found to be in possession of narcotics.
The subject legally departed Guyana in 1987 to reside permanently there. But it was in July 2001 that he was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and placed before the court. He was sentenced to three years four months imprisonment and deported at the end of his sentence.
Similarly a 27-year-old resident of East La Penitence Housing Scheme was deported from the US on July 8, 2005 for drug possession.
This resident, too, had departed Guyana legally in 1987 for the US and in 1999 was found to be in possession during a police search after which he was arrested and charged with intent to distribute marijuana. He served five years before being deported.
And on July 11, 2005 a 49-year-old East La Penitence resident was deported from Suriname on July 11, 2005 for trafficking in narcotics.
According to the police reports, the subject departed Guyana illegally through Port Springlands on June 13, 2004. He was arrested and charged the same day for the crime and was placed before the court where be pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 13 months' imprisonment which he served before his deportation.
This trend steadily increased in 2006 with an average rate of two persons per month with most being between the ages of 22 and 38 years old. There was the rare case of a 51-year-old among the deportees.
They were deported from both the US and Barbados for criminal acts including: possession of cocaine, importation of Narcotics, possession with Intent to distribute cocaine, conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute, as well as possession and trafficking in narcotics.
There were however, one reported case of attempted robbery and one of assault which led to the deportation of two West Coast Berbice residents in March of last year.