The three men who had been held in Suriname with a large quantity of gold were arrested on Friday on their return to Guyana and remained in custody up to yesterday.
Meanwhile, the police are still working to determine whether there is any link between the illegal exportation of gold to Suriname and the incident at Bartica involving robbery under arms and murder of 12 persons.
Police in a statement yesterday said the men were being questioned in relation to the illegal export with a view to determining whether it is linked to the Bartica incident.
On February 17, when gunmen stormed Bartica, they had first attacked the police station where three policemen were shot and killed. They then went to the CB&R Mining Company where they shot and killed a security guard and stole 12 guns, a quantity of gold and some petty cash, which was in an iron safe. Neither CB&R Owner Chunilall Baboolall nor the police had ever revealed to this newspaper the amount of gold stolen.
The gunmen had also destroyed security cameras at the location.
They then proceeded to the home of gold dealer Gurudat Singh, from where, it was reported, they escaped with a safe. A source told this newspaper that the gunmen would have taken a large quantity of gold from this family’s home.
The gold that was taken from the men has been confiscated by the Dutch authorities, though it is not the property of Suriname. This newspaper understands that the men told Surinamese authorities that they had purchased the gold in Guyana but had carried it over the border since they got more money for the mineral there.
Suriname sources said the men were being held for some time before the authorities decided on their course of action. They were then taken to court where they were fined.
A well placed source had told this newspaper that the men may be a part of a well established, gold smuggling ring supported by a network of Chinese businessmen operating out of Suriname.
This newspaper was also reliably informed that the gold, which the authorities intercepted, might not have been the full booty and that more of the mineral had missed the authorities’ vigilance on that day. The source informed Stabroek News too that the smuggling of gold to Suriname was a regular occurrence and this was possible because some gold and diamond dealers continue to be dishonest in their declaration of production.
“The problem is historical and they are not declaring their full produce, so some are able to escape and they make much more money in Suriname. It is fairly well established and is a historical problem which lies mostly in the issue of proper declaration,” the source said.
Observers as well as stakeholders in the mining industry had in the past, raised many concerns with regard to declarations by gold and diamond dealers and some had gone as far as saying that they were convinced that only one third of the country’s total gold production was being declared.
“Even while we are seeing declaration increasing to some extent, this has mostly been so because of increased production capacity. But they are indeed producing far more gold now and we are still only seeing less than half of what is produced,” the source said.
The source who is also knowledgeable about local mining operations told Stabroek News that for the authorities to clamp down on smuggling, vigilance would have to be heightened at the level of mining officers on the ground.
The source said the record keeping measures in this regard, sometimes leave much to be desired and added that the declaration system would have to be enhanced. As such, the source suggested that the forms which miners are made to full out would have to be done properly and a proper policing and vetting system implemented.
Many gold dealers have found the Suriname market for gold more lucrative since the laws there are a bit different and more favourable in terms of royalties and taxes.
