Ranks of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) on Saturday morning destroyed by fire over a 1000 kilos of cocaine and over 2000 kilos of marijuana as well as other illicit drugs such as ecstasy and methamphetamine at Home Stretch Avenue, Georgetown.
The narcotics destroyed were seized over the past two years and were related to cases which were completed by the courts.
The drugs being destroyed on Saturday morning
Overseeing operations was Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn, CANU Head James Singh, Head of the narcotics branch of the GPF, Superintendent Karl Wilson and other law enforcement officials.
The CANU Head explained that several challenges were faced by law enforcement officials when handling the trafficking, smuggling and possession of illegal drugs.
“We have lawyers now, basically, we recognise that prosecution is an area that we have to strengthen so we’re doing our utmost, Minister would’ve mentioned we have some persons who have been identified who will attend further training with the United States and other agencies because we recognise the fact that even though we may take a person before the court there are some challenges persons are getting bail for smaller amount and in some cases believe it or not persons are stepping forward to claim ownership in an attempt just to shield the real big fish as you may say,” Singh stated.
Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn overseeing the operation
While speaking on the issue of the cross-border drug trade via aircraft, Singh noted that due to the sharing of information with neighbouring countries, law enforcement agencies can better handle these situations.
“The fact that we’re now able to identify the frequency of these aircraft flying over and in some cases landing in Guyana is a result of our close collaboration that we’ve had within the last year with our regional counterparts as well as our neighbouring countries Brazil, Suriname also their adding agencies which I can’t mention now but the information shared is a lot more open, a lot more is coming to the table and that is why we’re able to identify specific areas where these aircraft are going and the pattern also, the organisations behind it.”
Meanwhile, Minister Benn told the media that for this year Guyana has been able to seize several aircraft in relation to these crimes.
“The number of planes destroyed I think we have 3 and we recovered 2 whole which will be put to use for operations of the Police and the military,” he stated.
The Minister further stated that since taking office, they have been having significant successes.
“We’ve had successes at Nine Miles, Potaro (Region Eight); Orealla, (Region Six). We’ve had successes up in the Kwakwani area, these relate to significant seizures they relate to the destruction and capture of planes and persons. The result is I think we have at least 3 pilots of Brazilian origin in the prisons and some who are Guyanese, who are also in prison,” the Minister added.
