Guyanese businessman arrested in New York on drug charges

A 42-year-old businessman, who is a partner in a local security company, was arrested moments after arriving at the John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport, New York, for drug-related charges.

Ghalee Khan, a partner in a local security company in Guyana, was handcuffed by law enforcement authorities there and taken off an American Airlines plane that landed in New York on Monday morning.
It was reported that Khan had his lawyers strike a deal with US authorities over pending narcotics trafficking charges that he has in the United States before he boarded a plane destined for the JFK Airport.
Reports are that as soon as the American Airlines flight landed, US law enforcement boarded the plane and requested that everyone remained seated. The officers then proceeded to Khan’s seat, immediately arrested him, then removed him from the plane.
It was after this that the passengers were allowed to disembark the plane, this newspaper was told.
Reports are that Khan, prior to his flight to the US on Monday, was part of the local Private Sector Commission (PSC) security committee.
Chairman of the PSC, captain Gerry Gouveia on Monday told Guyana Times that the pending charges and drug-related allegations against Khan in the US were never disclosed to the PSC.
According to Gouveia, Khan was a businessman in Guyana who “ran his own company” and sat at the PSC as a member of one of its sub-sector organisations.
“Whatever happened, we had no idea about his background, he is a member of the PSC security organisation, that is all we know of Ghalee Khan. But he is a legitimate businessman in Guyana, he ran his own security company and so we have no idea about his background like that. We know whatever we would have known about him is what happens in Guyana, we knew nothing about his background in the US.”
In 2009, Khan had faced drug trafficking charges in Guyana. In 2008 he was arrested and charged in the state of Brooklyn for allegedly participating with another Guyanese in a “cocaine drop-off”. Reports are that the US court had released him on bail pending the trial but he reportedly escaped to Guyana. As such, an arrest warrant was issued for him in the United States.