While a local probe continues into the discovery of 11.5 tonnes of cocaine, unearthed by authorities in Belgium from a container of scrap metal that originated here last year, Five Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) container scanning specialists were fired earlier this month for misconduct.
The firings were confirmed by Commissioner General of GRA Godfrey Statia, who in an invited comment recently told Sunday Stabroek that the staff were sent home after they were found culpable of collusion and sharing passwords.
Early November last year, 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 has been described as “the largest overseas drug bust ever, worldwide,” was seized upon its arrival at the Port of Antwerp. It carried an estimated street value of 900 million Euros.
Since then, a number of persons, including GRA employees, were questioned in relation to the discovery.
Investigators believe that the suspected shipper of the container, Marlon Primo, has crucial information that can aid in the probe. But to date, Primo is yet to be located despite several searches. Both the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the police have since issued wanted bulletins for Primo.
Sources had previously told this newspaper that the scanned images of the container were either deleted or altered.
However, after international help was sought, authorities were able to retrieve the deleted images.
This publication was also previously informed that GRA submitted a folder which contains thousands of images which were retrieved. CANU was tasked with trying to match the images with the shipment in question.
It is unclear whether the images were retrieved to date.
Last year end, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn had told reporters that while the process is ongoing, details about who removed the images during the scanning process have already been established. “I think there is some difficulty because over 50,000 images were provided to the CANU. They are trying nevertheless to examine them. But for sure it is known who removed the images, the dates and the times,” Benn had said, while adding that the perpetrator is the subject of investigations which are being carried out by both CANU and the GRA.
Benn had told reporters that the authorities are “extremely” alarmed that the shipment passed through the surveillance system without being discovered.
He had said that the operation had to have been in the planning for months.
The Brussels Times had reported counter-narcotics prosecutors as saying that they tracked the transatlantic journey of the cocaine from Guyana following the dismantlement of a drug trafficking gang led by a former Belgian counter-narcotics chief, which revealed the existence of tight-knit links between criminal gangs and counter-narcotics and law enforcement officials.
This newspaper was informed that the shipment departed Guyana on September 25th, 2020 and was searched by Belgian authorities on October 27th, 2020.
