The recent interception of drug couriers abroad is a sign that security arrangements at Guyana’s main international airport are flawed and according to opposition leader David Granger attention needs to be paid to training, supervision, remuneration and careful selection of law enforcement officers if the situation is to be improved.
Despite increased physical checks, use of the body scanner and use of bag scanners, persons with huge amounts of cocaine continue to slip out of the Cheddi Jagan Inter-national Airport (CJIA) Timehri, undetected. Numer-ous narcotics ranks from the Guyana Police Force and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) are based at the airport to search for drugs and to ensure that they are not smuggled on to any aircraft.
Granger said that with respect to what is happening at the airport one has to look at the human element because irrespective of how many machines are provided to combat the flow of illicit substances, if the persons responsible for drug enforcement are dishonest then there will always be breaches.
He said that the drug smugglers, in some cases, are able to defeat the system while in other situations there is complicity between the law enforcement officers and the smugglers.
He stressed that smuggling is a lucrative business while it is widely known that drug enforcement officers are poorly paid. “It is a question of bribery and corruption [and] also of people being poorly paid,” he said.
According to Granger, law enforcement officers must undergo a high enough standard of training to enable them to detect breaches and to perform their duties in an effective manner. He also stressed the need for long term training and drug enforcement officers who are qualified to hold such positions.
On the issue of supervision, he said the junior officers need to be properly supervised and aware of the fact that if breaches take place they will be discovered.
While emphasising that he was not trying to criticise all law enforcement officers, Granger said that there must be some system in place to pick out the bad eggs. He argued that in order to address the current situation, proper attention needs to be paid to careful selection, proper training, proper supervision and adequate remuneration.
According to Granger, a weakness in one of these four areas could be the reason why drugs are passing through the airport undetected.
Recent busts
Recently, in the space of ten days, four persons were nabbed at the JFK Inter-national Airport in New York with varying amounts of cocaine. In each case, the passengers arrived from their native Guyana.
The first to be nabbed was Wilton Sinclair. He was caught on November 18 attempting to smuggle 8.206 kilogrammes of cocaine hidden in four bottles of rum. He appeared in court and has since been placed on US$75,000 bail.
According to court documents, Sinclair was a passenger on Caribbean Airlines Flight 525 which departed Georgetown and travelled to Trinidad and Tobago. He then boarded another Caribbean Airlines flight and flew to the United States.
But on arrival at JFK airport, he was selected for passenger screening by the US Customs and Border Protec-tion officers. Sinclair was carrying a shopping bag which contained four 1.75 litre bottles of rum that, when inspected, were found to contain a thick, syrup-like substance inconsistent with rum.
Further inspections reveal-ed the presence of cocaine and Sinclair was arrested.
Sinclair waived his rights and told law enforcement agents that he was paid US$6,000 to take the four bottles containing cocaine from Guyana to the United States.
On November 21, Tricia Ann D’Aguiar was nabbed with cocaine in her suitcase. According to court documents, it was shortly after she had landed at the airport on a Caribbean Airlines flight from Guyana that a US Customs and Border Protec-tion narcotics dog drew attention to a suitcase that she later claimed as her own. The woman told the authorities that she packed the suitcase, which was found to contain 6.053 kilogrammes of cocaine concealed in plastic bags. Under questioning, D’Aguiar said she knew the cocaine was in her suitcase and that she was paid US$10,000 to transport the drugs to another individual, whom she had planned to meet in the US.
The following day, Fredericka Latrice Coats was nabbed at the same airport with cocaine concealed in books. Coats, who also arrived in the US on a Caribbean Airlines flight from Guyana, was in possession of four bags, including a plastic black bag that contained five hardcover books. She was selected for a random search and upon examination of the books officials noticed that they felt unusually thick. Coats was escorted to a private room and in her presence a further examination of the books was done and uncovered a white, powdery substance that tested positive for cocaine. The amount recovered from the book weighed 2.485 kilogrammes.
Coats subsequently appeared before Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom on November 24 and was placed US$150,000 bail.
On November 27, Melissa Cox was held at the airport in New York with two Fernleaf milk tins and two flour bags, all of which contained cocaine that amounted to 13.02 kilogrammes.
She arrived at the airport from Guyana on Caribbean Airlines flight BW 524 and she was approached by a Customs Border Protection officer, who asked whether two suitcases in her possessions belonged to her. The woman indicated that they did and when the suitcases were searched they were found to contain, among other things, two milk tins and two bags labelled Chappati flour. The tins and bags were examined and they were found to contain cocaine.
Cox waived her Miranda rights and revealed that she knew that her suitcases contained cocaine and that she expected to be paid in exchange for transporting the drugs by another individual, whom she expected to meet in the US.
She has since appeared before Magistrate Judge Roanne L. Mann and was remanded into custody.
Suspicion first, checks after
Meanwhile, a drug enforcement officer told Stabroek News that before they can act, there must be some level of suspicious that a person is transporting drugs, either based on information or some level of nervousness being displayed.
The officer said that at the airport, there is a body scanner that every passenger has to go through. Also, he said that all bags are also scanned. There are cases too where a physical search of the bag is also conducted.
It was explained that without a reasonable amount of suspicion, it would be impossible for the narcotics ranks to search every passenger. “You can’t search every passenger…It is all about suspicion,” he said.
Asked if there is anything on site to detect whether liquids, especially rum, contain cocaine, the officer stated that when cocaine is added to a liquid its texture changes and it becomes thick. He said that there is a spot test in place to confirm but by just looking at the liquid a drug officer can determine whether cocaine has been added to it. He said that a bottle of rum with cocaine inside will be weightier if drugs were added. He said that the same situation applies for cocaine in milk. Once cocaine is added, the milk tin becomes heavier.
The officer pointed out that when busts are made locally no noise is made, but as soon as the interception occurs abroad, ranks are accused of colluding with drug lords. He said that in majority of the cases, there is no collusion but rather luck on the part of the drug courier.
In the latest case with the rum, however, he said it is clear that there was collusion between the smuggler and staff at the airport, given the fact that the bottles of rum were packaged in duty free bags. In this regard, he said, when stocks are being taken to the duty free area there should be physical checks to ensure that no illicit drugs have been planted in any box or any product.
The officer noted that there ought to be seasoned drug enforcement officers at the airport as if they are “too green” then they become easy targets for drug traffickers. It was noted too that based on past experiences, the other agencies within the airport are easier to approach.
The officer made the point that ranks are sometimes removed from the location after being accused of collusion. “You move them and still the drugs passing…so how can they be colluding with these people and they are not there?” he asked.
Embarrassing
A security source said that this situation is embarrassing. “Can you imagine that you are checking people, checking bags and still so much drugs passing through the airport and ending up in the US? It doesn’t make us look good at all. It comes across that we here are incompetent,” he said.
He noted that at the airport there are a series of security checks one has to go through. It was also noted that at one time the airport had a machine which could test a person’s hands, clothes or body parts for traces of cocaine. He said the machine was so sensitive that even if the person takes a bath, traces will still be found. The source said that he is unsure if the equipment is still working because at one point it developed problems due to misuse.
The source made the point that the airport has enough agencies in place to ensure that “drugs don’t pass.”
He opined that it makes sense to have a turnover of ranks at this point of entry so as not to allow a rank to become comfortable or established. The use of drug dogs at the airport, the source said, ought to be beefed up if it hasn’t been done already.
He said that a lot is done to ensure that the right type of dogs are acquired from overseas and they are
properly trained. It was pointed out that the only problem is that the dog handlers are changed too frequently, resulting in a disjointed relationship between the dogs and the handlers.
According to the source, lack of integrity is also of concern.
There have been cases where airport staff have been charged with conspiring with persons to traffic in cocaine. In August last year, Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) employees Anthony Thomas and George Luke along with security agent Ravindra Singh were charged with allegedly conspiring with a person or persons unknown to traffic 11.44 kilogrammes of cocaine by attempting to export it on July 27 at the CJIA.
In May, this year, Eyon Persaud, 25, of Hyde Park, Timehri and Alex Seymour, 20, of 58 Garnett Street, Newtown, Kitty, who are both airport handlers, were charged with concealing 2.23 kilogrammes of cocaine in the vent of the luggage hold of an outgoing Caribbean Airlines flight.
In June, a dog handler, Special Constable Jevon David 28, of Brighton Village, Corentyne, Berbice denied that he, on May 23, at the CJIA, procured Eyon Persaud to traffic 3.498 kilogrammes of cocaine at CJIA.
