You better look out – CANU to drug traffickers

The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) has heightened security checks at both major ports of entry – the Eugene F Correira International Airport (Ogle, East Coast Demerara) and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (Timehri, East Bank Demerara) – to tackle any attempts to smuggle narcotics.
According to head of CANU, Michael Atherly, the Guyana Police Force and Unit are working collectively to clamp down on traffickers.
Atherly noted that during the end of year holiday season, it is compulsory that heightened security operations take full effect since there is a larger number of travellers.
“We work with the threats and currently we (CANU) are constantly accessing the threats. If we find that the threat is going to increase over the Christmas period, of course we will have to heighten the level of checks that we do at airports”.
However, the CANU head noted that the number of drug trafficking cases have increased. As such, he explained that plans are already in place to tackle this occurrence.

“Even though there is a small amount of drugs coming in, the most serious threat is drugs going out and that’s what we are going to concentrate on,” Atherly explained.
Only recently, while positing that a lot more work needs to be done, outgoing United States Ambassador to Guyana, Perry Holloway, has lauded efforts by drug enforcement agencies, both local and foreign, for trying to put a dent in the illegal narcotics trade in Guyana.
Being positioned on the South American continent with strong ties to the Caribbean region, Guyana has long been identified as a transshipment point for major drug trafficking activities. It was against this backdrop that the US established a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) office here.
During a recent interview with a group of local journalists ahead of his formal departure today, after serving his three-year tenure, Ambassador Holloway asserted that it was too early to gage the success of the DEA here but noted that more positive results can be expected in the coming years.
He noted that the DEA has done a great job in Guyana.
“I think in the next two or three years, you are going to see a lot more positive actions coming from your law enforcement entities and them cooperating with international law enforcement,” the US Diplomat stated.
One of those developments the former Ambassador spoke about is the arrest of Guyanese hotelier, Shervington “Big Head” Lovell, who was arrested in Jamaica last month for narcotics trafficking. He was recently extradited to the US where he faced additional charges.
According to reports, Lovell, who is the owner of Hotel Tower on Main Street, Georgetown, was arraigned before a Magistrate in a New York Court and pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to violate Maritime Drug Enforcement Law.
Nevertheless, Lovell’s arrest, Ambassador Holloway posited, was as a result of collaboration between the DEA office and local law enforcement agencies such as the Guyana Police Force and CANU.