Two persons are in police custody after ranks of the Customs Anti- Narcotic Unit (CANU) yesterday found 36 kilogrammes of cocaine and two magazines with live rounds in a house at Ogle, East Coast Demerera.
CANU Head James Singh in confirming the discovery said that it was all part of an ongoing operation. He told Stabroek News that ranks entered the house which is accessed through the Ogle Airstrip Road around 2 pm.
He said ranks found the 36.3 kgs of cocaine, a magazine for a rifle with 15 or 17 rounds and a second magazine for a submachine gun with 19 rounds inside in a room. The cocaine, he said, was in both powder and brick form supporting the conclusion that it was being prepared for shipment out of Guyana. He could not estimate the value of the drugs as according to him, it all depends on where it was heading.
Stabroek News was told that the cocaine found could fetch as much as US$1.1M ($220M Guyana currency).
Singh told Stabroek News that following the discovery, the police were called in but during a search of the premises nothing else was found.
Singh used the opportunity to commend his ranks for a job well done and also the police for the assistance given.
Within recent months large amounts of cocaine have been intercepted, in some cases by or with the assistance of CANU ranks.
Last November, 300 kilos of cocaine worth approximately $10M was found in a container of packaged soap powder at the John Fernandes terminal.
Exporter Dennis Jones took ownership of the drugs and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Then on December 6 last, at the Timehri airport 21.8 kilogrammes of cocaine was found in drinking straws which were made to look like macaroni and then hidden in boxes of mangoes destined for Canada. Police who made the discovery later laid charges against Obrian White, 23, a computer technician identified as the exporter and Adrian David, 23, a porter. They are both on remand.
The following day a China-bound shipment of cocaine disguised as fish food and worth $2 billion was unearthed by ranks of the Drug Enforcement Unit of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), who also reeled in the shipper and his assistant.
Gilbert Bristol, an importer/ exporter of 154 Garnett Street, Newtown, Kitty, was subsequently charged with trafficking in 233 kilogrames of cocaine and remanded to prison.
In recent years, large amounts of cocaine originating from Guyana have been intercepted in Canada, Malaysia, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries.
