Anti-narcotics agents yesterday intercepted approximately 314 kilos of cocaine hidden in a container of lumber at the Guyana Timber Products Inc. at Soesdyke and up to press time three men, including a Dutch national, were in custody in connection with the find.
The cocaine, just over 692 pounds and with a street value of US$11M ($2.2B Guyana dollars), was being prepared for export to Holland at the time of the bust, Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) boss James Singh said.
CANU ranks as well as officers of the Guyana Revenue Authority’s Drug Enforcement Unit spent hours inspecting each log in the container. The cocaine was wrapped in one pound parcels and was carefully concealed in the hollowed-out logs, which were then carefully fitted back together. One log held as much as 18 parcels.
Officials left the lumber yard, located at Lot 80 Public Road, just after the Linden/ Soesdyke Highway junction heading in the direction of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri late yesterday afternoon.
Guyana Timber Products Inc is a Dutch-owned operation with a Guyanese Managing Director and Chairman. The company has an office at Shantinikhetan Street, Prashad Nagar and at Coverden Public Road, East Bank Demerara.
Singh told Stabroek News that the discovery was made some time between 10am and 11am. He explained that the officers were searching a container that was already loaded with timber and the cocaine was “found in the timber.”
Two Guyanese are among those arrested and Singh said that at the moment others are not being pursued in connection with the case. He said that this discovery is probably the second largest in recent times, as the cocaine in soap powder bust made last December netted 325 kilos.
While not wanting to reveal the name of the company that owns the container, the CANU boss said that it has been on the radar for some time following a similar incident. “They were on the radar for some time so it is a continued operation,” he stressed.
In praising all those who played a part in the discovery, Singh said that CANU and its sister agency has been very aggressive in the fight to tackle drug smuggling. He said that although they are often times “beaten down,” the recent drug busts are proof that they are working.
Insistence
Meanwhile Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Khurshid Sattaur also praised the work of all the agencies involved in the operation. “It was because of our insistence that the container not be put on the ship without a certificate of export and relevant clearance… this was not given by us [GRA],” he noted.
He said that GRA was very vigilant with respect to the container and its contents. “They did not fail because of their insistence,” he pointed out.
Sattaur said that the agents involved in the bust displayed a high level of professionalism. However, he pointed out that taking credit for the discovery was not important. “We are just doing our work. That is what we are being paid for. That is our work,” he stressed.
He also refuted reports in sections of the media that his team was lax.
Not the first time
Lumber has in the past been used by traffickers to smuggle cocaine out of Guyana. In 2005, a bust which occurred in Barbados netted 91.3 kilos of cannabis and 119.4 kilos of cocaine in a shipment of lumber which arrived from Guyana.
On November 18, 2005, CANU agents had searched a consignment of timber destined for Barbados at the GNIC wharf after they received a tip off that it contained drugs. However, the search yielded nothing.
At the time, a CANU source said they had received a tip off that led them to search the load at the wharf, and the exporter was subsequently questioned.
As a result of the Barbados bust, six Guyanese nationals were charged and convicted in 2009.
Yesterday’s discovery is the second for this month. On February 8, 36.3 kilogrammes of cocaine, worth approximately US$1M or $200M Guyana currency, were discovered in a room inside a house at Ogle, East Coast Demerara. A magazine for a rifle with over a dozen rounds and a second magazine for a submachine gun with 19 rounds were also found inside the room.
Two men were arrested but were later released and Singh had told Stabroek News that they were looking for other persons in connection with the case.
As part of an ongoing operation, CANU ranks had descended on the house during early afternoon hours and found the cocaine, which was in both powder and brick forms. James had said that this supported the conclusion that it was being prepared for shipment out of Guyana.
Last November, 300 kilos of cocaine worth approximately US$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 O’brian 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 was unearthed by ranks of the GRA’s Drug Enforcement Unit, 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 kilos of cocaine and remanded to prison.
Security sources say that the interceptions point to the continued flow of drugs into Guyana through the porous border to the west.
Earlier this month, two agreements were signed with the US which will see Guyana getting help to go after drug lords along with training for key personnel and to protect the cooperation, lie-detector tests will be required of local officers who interface with their US counterparts.
Through the Caribbean Basin Security Initiatives (CBSI) I and 11, Guyana can expect continued financial aid from the United States to aid in tracking down, capturing and prosecuting drug traffickers and persons engaged in financial crimes. At the same time, security officers are to be trained, the event was told.
