Law enforcement authorities are searching for a number of other persons in relation to the recent Cdn$40 million drug bust in Canada including the brother of the Guyanese man held in Ontario.
Sources say that the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the police are searching for Indarpaul Doodnauth, the brother of Mahendrapaul Doodnauth who was held and charged in Canada last week. Indarpaul is said to be the operator of a business on the East Coast.
The authorities are also said to be searching for Orlando Watson of Annandale West who is alleged to be the shipper of the second set of cocaine-filled cartons with pepper sauce intercepted in St Croix, USVI. Watson is also alleged to have been involved in the preparation of the shipments.
The two are being sought in addition to local exporter Reginald Rodrigues who has reportedly fled to Suriname. In the bulletin on Monday the police said Rodrigues was wanted in connection with the seizure of 276 kilos of cocaine in Canada. The bulletin came five days after acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene had told Stabroek News that a local suspect had been identified and investigators were looking for him. Rodrigues is said to be 55 and his last known address was given as Lot 141 Victoria Street, Albouystown. He is 5’11” tall and has brown eyes, black hair and is slimly built.
Rodrigues was reportedly busted in Miami, Florida, ten years ago when he had gone to uplift a shipment, which was being sent to someone in New York.
After the bust, Rodrigues was sent to New York where he and a co-accused were charged. Rodrigues was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison and after serving the time he was deported. He reportedly operated an export business. The website www.reycleinme.com lists him as the contact person for Rodrigues Tropical Export Co Limited, located at Lot 141 Victoria Street, Albouystown.
Sources close to the local investigation say that a number of deportees and other with suspected criminal antecedents were involved in the pepper cocaine smuggling operation. They had all invested various amounts in the purchasing and packaging of the cocaine with the hope of making a super profit once the pepper sauce cartons made it into Canada during the busy holiday season.
Rodrigues is believed to have taken possession of the cartons with the cocaine already secreted within the dividers.
There had been ongoing co-operation between local enforcement authorities and those in Canada and the US in this operation. The sources say that the moment the first bust was announced in Canada an attempt was made to arrest Rodrigues but he had already suspected that something was amiss and had gone underground. A location on Camp Street was also searched but he was not found.
On December 8, officers found 276 kilos of high-quality cocaine at the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, aboard the ship, Tropic Canada. It regularly transports goods between St John and the Caribbean.
According to the Toronto Star newspaper, the drugs were traced back to Guyana, from where the padded freight containers were shipped out. The Star reported investigators as saying that the vessel in New Brunswick was confirmed to have been carrying 77-79 per cent pure cocaine, which was found inside boxes of hot sauce. They removed all but two kilos of the cocaine and performed a controlled delivery of the container to its original destination in Etobicoke. It was received by the owner of the company, Mahendrapaul Doodnauth, who unloaded the boxes at a rented storage facility on Rexdale Boulevard in Toronto. As a result, Doodnauth, of Toronto, was charged. There is no record at the Lighthouse of the ship entering Guyana’s waters.
On December 24, a day after announcing one of the largest drug busts in Ontario’s history, Durham police working with the Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) tipped off the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) about the second shipment, which was stopped in St Croix, USVI.
According to the Star, the drugs, with an estimated valued of US$14.5 million, were hidden in cardboard dividers in 139 boxes of food seasoning products also destined for Doodnauth’s business in Etobicoke.