The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the management of the MV Delta Dies, the cargo ship on which a container with 192.4 kilos of cocaine was recently found, are currently engaged in talks that could see a fine being paid for the release of the vessel.
This is according to GRA head Khurshid Sattaur, who says there are provisions for settlements as well as forfeiture in the Customs Act.
Currently, the police and the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) are awaiting legal advice as it pertains to drug trafficking charges being instituted against the captain and two of his crew members who were held after the discovery of the narcotics.
Sattaur, asked whether authorities in Guyana would take control of the vessel or if it would be released, stated that there are a number of things outlined in the Act as it relates to seizure and forfeiture of a vessel on which drugs is found.
He indicated that there are some legal difficulties that the revenue body will have to deal with and he pointed out that the fact that the persons on the vessel had no knowledge that the drugs were there has to be taken into consideration.
While explaining that the GRA has jurisdiction over the vessel and CANU has jurisdiction over the cocaine found, he said that the revenue body was presently working on a settlement so that the vessel can be released.
He said that keeping the vessel in continued detention, among the things that would have to be addressed is a place to store it. Sattaur pointed out there have been similar cases in the past and they have all been resolved through settlements.
“We impose what the law allows.
The law allows for us to be engaged in settlement,” he said, while stressing that while the law provides for forfeiture, a fine can be imposed as another course of action.
He later confirmed that the GRA has been in contact with the owners of the vessel. According to Sattaur, with this type of situation a number of issues can arise, inclusive of loss of income.
He said that such cases can be challenged by international lawyers. The GRA, he said, lacks lawyers who can successfully challenge these kinds of things.
He said that in lieu of court proceedings, there can be settlements in the form of a fine, which he determines to be appropriate.
The ship had travelled from Suriname to Guyana and was scheduled to leave Guyana for Spain then to Holland and finally to Belgium.
After it arrived in Guyana in the first weekend of the new year, it travelled to Linden, where bauxite was loaded. It was, however, under surveillance by local authorities, who were tipped off by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC).
The drugs were packed in 185 packages or bricks, which were concealed under the pallets of a container aboard the vessel. The discovery was made by CANU investigators with assistance from the Guyana Revenue Auth-ority’s Law Enforcement and Investigation Division and the Drug Examination Unit.
