Law enforcement officials are tracing around a dozen vehicles – mainly Toyota Tundras and Nissan Titans – as they believe these were purchased with proceeds from the drug trade and shipped here from the US over the last eight months.
Sources say this latest inquiry is part of an expanding probe into the drug trade which has gained momentum in recent weeks following seizures in the US and Canada of drug shipments which originated in Guyana.
Following these busts there has been increasing cooperation between law enforcement authorities here and their counterparts in Canada and the United States. There have been visits by law enforcement officials from both of these countries.
Shipping information on the vehicles has been provided by US authorities and it appears that the Tundras and Titans may have entered the car trade. The importation of vehicles is cropping up as a key way in which drug proceeds are laundered.
The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) has been questioning a number of suspects since the drug busts overseas and it has been able to share information with agencies overseas.
More than a dozen people have been pulled in by CANU or voluntarily turned themselves in for questioning.
The intensified probe came after Canada found a huge shipment of cocaine in the dividers of cartons carrying pepper sauce.
Thus far, CANU has questioned the key suspects in the organization that smuggled 376 kilos of cocaine in the pepper sauce cartons. One shipment was busted on December 8 in New Brunswick, Canada and the other was nabbed on December 24 in St Croix, the US Virgin Islands after Canadian authorities tipped off the US DEA.
CANU had put out bulletins for Reginald Rodrigues and Orlando Watson in connection with this case. Rodrigues remains elusive while Watson has been in touch with CANU to clarify his side of the story.
Another person of interest, Inderpaul Doodnauth has been in contact with CANU. His brother, Mahendrapal was arrested in Canada in relation to the New Brunswick shipment. Two others who co-run a store in Georgetown have also been in contact with CANU. One of the two was also being questioned in relation to a shipment of timber with cocaine seized in the Caribbean last year.
The information about the vehicles stemmed from the interception in Miami of a container of furniture from Guyana which carried cocaine.
CANU has been in contact with the prime suspect in the Miami cocaine-in-furniture bust and are trying to tease out a tangible link to the suspected prime mover behind this shipment.
This West Demerara businessman has long been suspected of involvement with the drug business and despite several run-ins with the law enforcement authorities has managed to stay out of trouble and place himself at the centre of high-profile public events in the region.
In late December, 170 kilos of cocaine were found in furniture at Port Miami. The furniture had been loaded here and the shipper, Nymrod Singh was subsequently held in Bartica. He was released after questioning.
While no-one has yet been charged in connection with these cases CANU and other law enforcement sources believe that the various interrogations and arrests have helped to upturn a key drug ring and many of the key players are nervy about who could be trusted. They are also being harried by drug suppliers for payment for the seized cocaine.
Meanwhile yesterday CANU also detained a deportee who was pointed out through information from the US. The deportee was questioned about his involvement in the drug business.
In recent weeks CANU has also questioned a key player in the automobile trade and two deportees believed to be instrumental in drug trafficking between Guyana and Barbados and St Maarten.
