The recent interceptions of two cocaine laden suitcases at JFK mock every denial and evasion uttered by the PPP government about corruption and its reach into the nation’s economy and way of life. The seizures reveal how embedded the problem has become; how, when the simple arithmetic of the whole picture is considered, drugs and money laundering constitute a sizable portion of the entire local economy.
It is appropriate to start by working backwards. There was a 40 pound suitcase, and before that a pink 50 pound beauty. These two busts at JFK underscore several key points. Among them are: 1) there has been no discovery of significance at any time locally; 2) the seamlessness with which these discovered shipments flowed past the sentinels – especially the human ones – at this particular port of departure; 3) the probability of more suitcases and other contraptions passing through undetected, but facilitated, using this port; and 4) the reality of numerous other larger shipments occurring through the use of different channels, routes, and methods. Taken together, this paints a most disturbing picture regarding the quantity of narcotics that is transshipped through local ports. Moreover, when the economics of the trade is reviewed, the situation quickly grows from disturbing to downright overwhelming.
This may not be the most current number, but a possible estimate of the wholesale price of cocaine hovers around US$20,000 for a kilo of good stuff. Some quick multiplication results in US$400,000 and US$300,000 for the hauls in the two intercepted suitcases. In Guyana dollars, this translates to approximately eighty million and sixty million respectively. Since the foreign suppliers have no use for unwashed dollars, the assumption can be made that these one hundred and forty million Guyana dollars would have found their way into the local economy through the well-worn conduits now prevalent. One hundred and forty million dirty dollars available for washing and business and just from two ill-fated suitcases; in reality, only the tip of the iceberg.
Care must be taken so that the larger points are not lost: that this is $140m that got arrested in New York and would not be repatriated to the homeland; that many countless undetected billions (repeat, billions) have already been ploughed back into this domestic money-laundering machine; that if there is the confidence to direct a suitcase with nothing but cocaine inside through the known human and other cordons at the one major international airport, then there has to be even more confidence to ship far greater amounts using other means, including loading and leaving by land, overland, or offshore arrangements; and that there is the high probability of many thousands of kilos annually passing through local facilities and agencies. Think of it: any cocaine mover of standing could dispatch hundreds of kilos at a time using the near impenetrable cover of rice or fish or molasses; or through using other commodities and means still undetected currently. But, it is time to return to the arithmetic.
Using the same $20,000 a kilo wholesale price from earlier, but now estimating total annual shipments of 1,000 kilos (only) through here, the take in criminal dollars is a staggering forty billion Guyana. Forty billion dollars longing to be washed and sanitized, and there is no better place than cash intensive, institutionally compromised, and politically friendly Guyana to get the job done.
Before moving forward, there is one more factor worthy of consideration: Up to this point, the discussion has not included the astronomical sums standing by for laundering opportunities. These sums would be the untold billions of American dollars that are totally unrelated to the narcotics shipped from Guyana. In aggregate, this represents an ocean of illegal money rushing downhill through the streets and business of this country, and tainting a significant amount of its economic endeavours.
This is the iceberg that the PPP government strives very diligently to trivialize and, until recently, deny outright. It is obvious that the amounts mentioned can shroud a lot of contracting and outsourcing; a lot of buying and selling; and a whole lot of corruption. Or as the government would prefer the nation to believe lots of investments and progress, and only a little or some level of corruption. In terms of the latter, it is now undeniable that countless millions of easy dollars are available to make all things possible.
It is all cash and by the barrel; there are no trails left by messy checks and drafts and accounting standards. It all makes for reach that is impressive: from a powerful and irresistible political lobby to the compromise of institutional integrity at any level to dictating circumstances to suit illegitimate activities. In other words, there is nothing and no one that cannot be bought, as price is not a problem. Here is the disastrous place where the never – or poorly – implemented Drug Master Plans, Financial Intelligence Units, and Anti-Money Laundering charades have brought this nation.
This is the heaving economic milieu that ordinary Guyanese observe; the financial pornography that they know when they see it. It is where two captured suitcases equalled over 100 million dollars, but what everyone accepts are drops in the bucket. When all the suitcases and boats and unknown airstrips and mysterious aircraft are considered, one has to wonder about the potential value of the bucket itself and all the implications for Guyana economically, politically and socially. There is no question that such is beyond measurement. Through cocaine and money laundering, the equivalent of dirty nuclear bombs has been exploded in tiny Guyana. Most of what was once positive and uplifting and moral has since evaporated. Now a radioactive horror infects the nation’s economic life.
Things have been kept simple today. No honest man, no concerned citizen should have difficulty understanding what was presented above. This is the straightforward arithmetic of the troubles and hazards of an evil time.