The father of race car driver, Nazim Gafoor, who was among the three persons the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) issued a wanted bulletin for on Sunday, was yesterday afternoon arrested and lawmen have since applied for more time to keep two of the six other men in custody.
Commander of ‘D’ Division Leslie James, when contacted yesterday afternoon, confirmed that Tazim Gafoor was arrested around 13.15 hrs. James said the police, acting on information received, went to a location at Parika, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) where Tazim was arrested. He was later handed over to and is currently in custody of CANU.
The two other men: well-known biker, Stephen Vieira and Narine Lall are yet to be apprehended. Lall is said to be out of the jurisdiction, while the agency said that several searches were being made for Vieira.
However, as it relates to the six persons who were initially taken into custody, a
source indicated to Stabroek News that four of them were expected to be released, since CANU officials were unable to build any case against them.
CANU on Friday conducted a raid at a location in Zeelugt, EBE, during which over 84 kilogrames of cocaine at a street value of $550 million were found dressed in lumber.
Nazim, a truck driver and a few porters were taken into custody.
In a statement issued on Sunday evening, the agency had said that the drugs were found at the Lot 227 Zeelugt, EBE premises of Akeem Mohamed. The drugs, the statement said were found in hollowed lumber bound for United States.
The lumber, pallets of 1×6 boards, had been laden in a truck which was parked at the residence. “The said search revealed cocaine found in random boards scattered among genuine boards in each pallet; each of the compromised boards had a dug out cavity with the vaccum sealed plastic packets containing cocaine pasted therein,” the release had said.
“Discovered was a total of 84.986 kilogrammes of cocaine equalling a landed US street value in excess of $550 million,” it added.
CANU had said that its investigation had revealed that the truck was hired to pick up and
transport the lumber from Lall’s Sawmill at Lookout, East Bank Essequibo to a wharf at Georgetown.
Meanwhile, Tazim Gafoor was previously placed before the court and charged over his alleged involvement in another matter of the same nature.
The 43-year-old man, of Lot 39 Menzies Street, Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, last September following the unearthing of over nine kilogrammes of cocaine.
