A Guyana-registered vessel has been intercepted in Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI) with a total of 43.18 kilograms (95 pounds) of cocaine concealed in Thin-Set Cement.
News reports out of the BVI stated that on July 18, three pallets containing 200 bags of Thin-Set Cement was found on the vessel Krautsand after it docked at Port of Purcell. The boat arrived from Trinidad and Tobago.
The seizure was part of a joint operation involving both the Police and Customs Department of the BVI. The vessel reportedly left Guyana in mid-June for Trinidad and Tobago.
There has been no information released on the owner of the vessel as the investigations are ongoing. Attempts to get a comment from the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) proved futile on Tuesday.
On March 19, 2019, four Guyanese were sentenced in St Croix District Court, US Virgin Islands for possession of cocaine on board a vessel.
They are Neville Jeffrey, 70; Mohamed Hoseain, 66; Richard La Cruz, 51, and Mark Anthony Williams, 32.
It was reported that District Court Judge Wilma A Lewis sentenced Jeffrey to 48 months, Hoseain to 36 months, La Cruz to 30 months and Williams to 27 months.
Lewis also sentenced each defendant to two years of supervised release, but ordered that they be deported upon release from incarceration. She further ordered them to pay a special assessment of US$100 each and did not impose a fine.
They all pleaded guilty to cocaine possession charges in November and December of 2018. According to plea agreements filed with the court and statements at the sentencing hearing, the US Coast Guard Cutter Napier intercepted a suspicious vessel in a joint operation with the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard approximately 70 nautical miles north of Paramaribo, Suriname, in international waters, on February 16, 2017.
