Representatives from a wide cross-section of agencies involved in the drug fight are in a two-day closed conference at the Grand Coastal Inn, Le Ressouvenir on the East Coast, and Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee says it is expected that the conference will map the way forward in Guyana’s drug fight.
Facilitators of the two-day confab come from both local and international agencies and the latter include the Regional Coordinator of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Carib-bean Financial Action Task Force, the United States Southern Command, Interpol and the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Programme.
In addressing the participants, who are drawn from the Guyana Police Force, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and a number of other agencies including those that offer rehabilitation services for drug abusers, Rohee said drug trafficking remains a challenge to Guyana but he is confident that the fight is not lost.
He said as home affairs minister he can see clearly the threat of the damage drug trafficking can cause to a nation, adding that the country’s geographic location in relation to international drug trafficking groups is important to note.
“The people who are involved in moving drugs are very often the same people who will use the same infrastructure for many other illegal activities,” the minister said.
The magnitude of the problem and its scope for undermining all other efforts currently in place for building a secure and prosperous state are known, he noted.
From every angle
He said the profits from the drug trade are being used in money laundering and terrorism and this provides additional reason why drug trafficking should be fought from every possible angle.
Identifying some consequences of the drug trade, he noted that it affects public health and security in a country and it can also threaten political stability and affects national security.
Singing his government’s praises in the narco fight, without acknowledging major lapses when large amounts of cocaine slip past the authorities here and the couriers are nabbed overseas, or the failure to arrest any of the drug lords, Rohee said they have waged a spirited battle against the drug trade.
He said with the multiple threats posed by the drug trade the country is now building an appropriate institutional structure and capacity which “in no way can be compared to what obtains in the developed countries who themselves have often been at a loss in devising effective strategies to deal with drug trafficking and its consequences in the respective states.”
For the drug fight to be successful it has to transcend national boundaries and become an international fight and the minister once again took the opportunity to take a swipe at the developed world for the “mere pittance” provided towards the fight. And according to Rohee as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Guyana is spending twice as much as the US does in the war on drugs.
“It is the Government of Guyana’s view that there should have been greater multilateral, financial, technical and intelligence cooperation in the implementation of our 2005-2009 national drug strategy master plan and the more general fight against drugs in Guyana but this was not to be,” the minister said.
New plan
But he asserted that not withstanding the limitations, several programmes of the strategy were successfully implemented. And he disclosed that arrangements for crafting a new strategy are already in place and the further implementation of the ongoing programmes will be included in the new plan.
While CANU has made several successful drug busts, Rohee said the police force has also made significant strides in strengthening its approaches relating to the drug fight.
The force, he said, has already for the year eradicated 63 marijuana farms with 142,656 kilogrames of cannabis valued at US$60M while in addition the Guyana Defence Force spent a total of $6.3M in its contribution to the drug fight in collaboration with the police force.
Meanwhile, the conference was described by Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Angela Johnson as one of the initiatives that is being taken to look at the issue of drug trafficking from a “holistic approach” and it was hoped that the knowledge gained by the participants would be used to further strengthen the country’s resolve in the fight.
In brief remarks Regional Coordinator of UNODC Claudio Santorum said that the conference is a sign that Guyana is taking the lead to combat organized crime which is a serious issue worldwide.
