The container which was suspected to have had 11.5 tonnes of cocaine amid scrap metal was scanned at a city port of exit but it appears that the images were altered or deleted, sources close to the investigation say.
Attempts are being made to retrieve the images.
And with a number of Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) employees and the driver of the container truck in custody up to yesterday, local law enforcement officers continue to search for the shipper Marlon Primo.
“They have some GRA people in custody for questioning and they are looking for this Primo man. I think they picked up the driver of the rig which brought in the containers. There seems to be a particular problem with the proper scanning and sealing of this set of containers, which is the GRA angle, but it [the investigation] is ongoing,” Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn told Stabroek News yesterday when contacted.
Sources close to the investigation told this newspaper that the scanner was working at the time the container in question was imaged and continues to work but it seems someone manually altered or deleted the images.
GRA, the source said, has informed that the scanner was working and that agency is also conducting its own internal investigation to determine why there were no images in the system for the scrap iron shipment although it was logged.
When contacted by this newspaper yesterday, GRA Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia would only say, “The scanner did not stop working. The containers were scanned, and the images are being restored for evaluation by the experts.”
The intercepted shipment has once again raised questions about the processing of the containers before they depart Guyana.
Questioned about the matter on Friday, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo during a press conference told reporters that the government is engaging all the relevant agencies in an effort to “get to the bottom” of the matter.
He said that he has heard but had not verified and should not be held to the position, that the container had been “flagged for inspection but it was never inspected”. According to Jagdeo, container scanners were not working and the Chinese government had donated two.
“We have met with all of the agencies including the US and the DEA (US Drug Enforcement Administration). We are working closely with them… Any transshipment, we want to catch,” he said.
Local authorities are assisting Belgium and the US DEA with the investigation. If this large quantity of cocaine was transshipped via Guyana and breached several checks it would raise serious questions about the quality of the anti-narcotics fight.
Last week, law enforcement officials in Belgium announced that they were probing the discovery of 11.5 tonnes of cocaine in the container of scrap metal shipped from Guyana.
The shipment, which is being described as “the largest overseas drug bust ever, worldwide,” was seized upon its arrival at the Port of Antwerp. It carries an estimated street value of 900 million Euros.
The Brussels Times had reported counter-narcotics prosecutors as saying that they tracked the transatlantic journey of the cocaine from Guyana.
“The massive load of cocaine left a port in Guyana in late October and prosecutors were able to track (it) following the dismantlement of a drug trafficking gang led by a former Belgian counternarcotics chief which revealed the existence of tight-knit links between criminal gangs and counternarcotics and law enforcement officials,” the report explained.
The Belgian newspaper further said that law enforcement officers were expecting the “record-breaking” shipment since it is suspected it left the port of Guyana after the drug gang’s arrest in Belgium.
“Three police officers, a port manager and a lawyer were among twenty others who were arrested as part of the operation which targeted the “well-structured” criminal organisation suspected of orchestrating large and “regular” drug shipments from South America to Belgium,” the report noted.
The dismantlement of the drug gang in late September, the Brussels Times said, had led to the arrest and indictment of 22 persons, three of whom are still in the Netherlands awaiting extradition. “Following the record-breaking drug bust on Wednesday, three others were arrested, including one person who is facing extradition to Belgium from the Netherlands,” the report added. In August, authorities in the German port city of Hamburg found over €300 million worth of cocaine in a cargo ship container from Guyana containing rice. The cocaine which weighed 1.5 tons was found in a freight container. It is believed that the drug was inserted in the Dominican Republic where the vessel stopped before the cargo was taken to Hamburg.
