Government’s failure to request information from Canadian authorities on the 2008 pepper sauce cocaine bust is a sign that it is not interested in finding the key players, according to AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan.
Three hundred and seventy six (376) kilogrammes of cocaine were intercepted on Guyana originating shipments at the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada on December 8, 2008.
Then President Jagdeo later said someone implicated in a “cocaine in pepper sauce” bust was a major financier of the AFC, which the party denied while welcoming any investigation. In an invited comment yesterday, Ramjattan said that Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) head James Singh’s recent comments clearly show “misinformation” on the case.
Singh had told Stabroek News in a telephone interview that a request for information was made through the Home Affairs Ministry and nothing was received so far. However, days later he said that no request had been made.
“The government does not want the information to be brought out,” Ramjattan said, while noting that a request ought to have been made since the case was a very serious one. He noted that the Canadians would always share information regarding narcotics. “The [Guyana] government, I feel, may have gotten the information and it may be implicating some of their friends. That is whey don’t want the information to be brought out,” he said.
In a letter to this newspaper, which was published in last Friday’s edition, Singh said that no request for information was made by the Ministry of Home Affairs (on behalf of CANU) to the Canadian authorities under the mutual legal assistance mechanism as established by the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act No. 38 of 2009. He added that subsequent to the seizure in December 2008 in Canada, local investigations commenced and discussions were held with Canadian counterparts. However the information and assistance provided to CANU was insufficient for charges to be instituted in Guyana.
“I wish to state that the impression given when the article is read, leads one to believe that our Canadian counterparts are reluctant to assist with local investigations which are of mutual interest. This is totally inaccurate,” Singh stated.
Stabroek News was told that usually requests for assistance in such cases are handled through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and not the Home Affairs Ministry. A source explained that a request to another state is a Foreign Affairs matter and therefore it was that ministry that had to make a request for information pertaining to the investigation. Several attempts to reach Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee and Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett for comments on the case were unsuccessful.
Officers found 376 kilos of high-quality cocaine at Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, aboard the vessel “Tropic Canada.” The Toronto Star reported investigators as saying that the vessel was confirmed to have been carrying 77-79 per cent pure cocaine, which was found inside the cardboard dividers of 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, Ontario. 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 with importing cocaine, conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
More busts
Since 2008, several large cocaine shipments that originated from Guyana have been intercepted by US and Canadian authorities. No one in Guyana, however, has been charged in connection with these cases.
A major drug shipment was traced back to Guyana after US federal agents on December 24, 2008 seized 100 kilos of cocaine found inside pepper sauce cartons aboard a ship in St Croix, US Virgin Islands. The US agents had been tipped off by Canada. Several bulletins were issued for persons in the pepper sauce cocaine probe but after being questioned they were released.
On the heels of two major pepper sauce cocaine busts, customs authorities at the Port of Miami, on December 29, acting on a tip off, unearthed 169 kilos (373 pounds) of cocaine hidden in furniture aboard a vessel that last stopped in Georgetown.
In January this year, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) reported that in the previous four months, some 28 kilogrammes (61lbs) of cocaine that originated here was unearthed, the bulk of which was hidden in hollowed–out pineapples and watermelons.
According to a report in The Windsor Star, with the seizures the Canadians have also broken up a well-organised international narcotics ring, which has ties to Eastern Canada, the United States, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Guyana.
The report stated that the probe into the case started when the CBSA officers in New Brunswick seized a marine container which contained concealed cocaine. The drugs were hidden inside the hollowed-out pineapples and officers collected some 19 kilos of cocaine, which were stuffed inside 80 pineapples scattered in the shipment.
Investigators estimated the value of the drugs at CDN$850,000.The container was linked to a Toronto address and over the following four months the RCMP identified further illegal drug shipments. The report added that CBSA officers intercepted two trucks, which each contained 115 kilos of marijuana with a value of CDN$230, 000. The drugs were hidden in the packaging surrounding shipments of watermelons. Six persons were arrested during that investigation.
More cocaine from Guyana was seized by Canada in February in another shipment of fruit: star apples. The Vancouver Sun reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced that police and CBSA investigators seized 20 kilogrammes of cocaine from a star apple shipment at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. It reported that the star apples were part of a larger shipment from Guyana that included pineapples and mangoes.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin Nicholson said the shipment raised flags because Guyana is not known to export a lot of fruit to Canada. The drugs were discovered using X-ray technology and drug-sniffing dogs, the report said.
Late last month, Canadian officials arrested eight persons after seizing 170 kilos of cocaine that were hidden in wooden pallets used to transport food from Guyana. The seizures took place on May 29 and June 5 and the CBSA, which collaborated with the RCMP to make the busts, said that both containers originated in Guyana. The cocaine, with an estimated street value of CDN$21M, was seized in two separate drug busts at Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, according to a release from the RCMP.
“On May 29, 2012, CBSA agents inspected a cargo shipping container where they discovered approximately 120 kilograms of cocaine. Bags of cocaine were concealed within several wooden pallets stacked within the container. The pallet boards had been hollowed out and filled with bags of cocaine. The container which also contained food products was destined to Ontario,” the RCMP said. “On June 16, 2012, five men were arrested in Ontario and charged with importing narcotics, conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession for the purpose of trafficking,” the release added.
Those charged are James Joseph Buttazzoni, 40, and Gary Glen Ramoutar, 41, both from Toronto; Rampersaud Ramlall, 37, of Whitby, Ontario; Lawrence Fitzpatrick Dalloo, 50, of Ottawa, and Sean Mohammed Hussain, 31, of Mississauga.
The drugs were found while conducting a secondary examination of a marine container. The shipment included sauces, seasonings and noodles originating in Guyana and destined for Mississauga, Ontario. Using X-ray technology, border services officers detected anomalies within the wooden pallets in the shipment. A total of 121 kg of cocaine was seized.
Then on June 5, CBSA agents again discovered another container, also destined for Ontario, containing cocaine concealed in wooden pallets. This time approximately 48 kilogrammes of cocaine was found. The sea container was allegedly en route from Guyana, via the port of Saint John to Toronto where it was addressed to an area business, the RCMP said. On June 18, RCMP arrested three individuals, Joseph Compton Grant-Stuart, 57; Ephraim Augustus Grant-Stuart, 56; and Dennis Andrew Grant-Stuart, 70, all of Toronto. They have all been charged with importing narcotics, conspiracy to import cocaine and trafficking cocaine.
Based on the information out of Canada they have already made a court appearance.
