The Enforcement Division of the Customs and Trade Administration (CTA) is preparing to prosecute those nabbed in the $70 million bust, which included vehicles and liquor seized from the MV Lady Kimberly.
A number of persons, including the owner of the boat and the owner of the items found thereon, may appear before the court next week. The liquor shipment has been linked to a number of “high profile” businesspersons in Guyana.
The bust, which the Guyana Revenue Authority is considering to be the biggest customs bust here so far, involved the seizure of the MV Lady Kimberly, modified fibre-glass trawler, a 14-foot aluminium boat equipped with a 15 hp engine, three enclosed canter trucks, a minibus and a car.
A source from CTA told this newspaper that the division is pressing along with the matter. Since the seizure, which took place on the Demerara River, the vessel has been moored at the John Fernandes wharf in Georgetown.
According to the GRA, someone calling himself Joseph Sahadeo came forward claiming ownership of the vessel, but not of the trucks, the minibuses or the liquor.
More than 4,000 cases Heineken beer, 500 cases of assorted liquor, such as Grey Goose vodka, Baileys Irish Cream liqueur, tequila, Hennessy cognac, Absolute vodka (assorted) Black Label whiskey, Johnny Walker whiskey and more than 300 cases of Red Bull were among the seized items.
Officials from Enforce-ment said that the operation began during the early hours of February 14 following intelligence that there was a vessel containing smuggled goods moored at Rambarran’s Wharf, Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara.
When the officers arrived, the vessel had already discharged some of the goods and it made off in a bid to escape the GRA staff. The team pursued the vessel and intercepted it while it was hiding behind an island south of the Demerara River.