-three in custody
Officers of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) yesterday seized a large quantity of gold jewellery from three passengers, two of whom are US citizens, who were attempting to leave on an outbound American Airlines flight bound for New York, USA.
The operation, which was fully supported by officers of the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), and the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU), led to the discovery of approximately 240 ounces of virtually pure gold disguised as silver-plated jewellery, intended to be shipped out of the country without the necessary permits and declaration to Customs officials, with a value of over US$560,000.
A release from the GRA said that the outgoing passengers were arrested and taken into custody and handed over to the Guyana Police Force. Investiga-tions are continuing, with a view of determining whether they are part of ring(s) reportedly smuggling gold out of Guyana without the necessary declarations and permits. The release said that charges are likely to be made under the Customs and Anti-Money Laundering Acts, with the relevant Autho-rities both here and overseas being informed of the results of the investigations.
The Authority said it continues to note the alarming trend in the efforts to smuggle items including gold, monetary instruments, arms, and narcotics through ports in Guyana. It reiterates that all such persons dealing in or contemplating engaging in such illegal activities to cease and desist therefrom, or face the consequences for their actions.
The Revenue Authority urged the General Public to report any illicit, unlawful or smuggling activities on telephone number 227-6060, Extensions 3201, 3204, 3205, 3206, 3211, 3212, or 3408. All information provided will be dealt with strict confidentiality.
Yesterday’s silver-plated caper at the airport would represent another in a long line of schemes to smuggle gold – currently at stratospheric prices internationally – out of the country. The audacity of the plan would suggest that it had been tried before with success.
Over the last two decades, governments here have been warned about the large-scale gold smuggling out of the country but there have only been a few successes, yesterday’s being one.
There have been overt displays of the illicit hoarding of gold by dealers and in a notorious occurrence, the theft of a huge shipment of gold in Cura-cao which was believed to be en route to the US after being loaded in Guyana.
There have also been questions about Venezue-lan gold being commingled with Guyana’s gold.
In January this year, Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC noted that gold smuggling was one of the highest money laundering threats in Guyana, which was flagged by the second Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing National Risk Assessment in 2022.
The National Risk Assessment (NRA) noted that in 2016 it was reported that 15,000 ounces of gold was smuggled out of Guyana weekly, while in 2017, a major gold smuggling racket was unearthed through the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which provided Guyana’s authorities with a list of persons who had taken gold to the JFK Airport, New York, and declaring it there.
“The smuggling was made possible because Customs and other Gold Board documents were recycled along with seals. Hundreds of millions of dollars of profits were being made but little for Guyana. Considering these factors, smuggling including gold smuggling represents a High Threat of money laundering in Guyana,” the report said.
The NRA report emphasized that the findings are based on statistical evidence of investigated and prosecuted cases, and on the value of proceeds confiscated, as well as estimated to have been generated from the crimes, while estimates are based mainly on media reports, and suspicious transaction reports filed with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
In July last year, Brazil said it was conducting an investigation involving a Guyanese businessman, who was said to be part of a smuggling ring where some R$80 million (US$16.4 million) of illegally mined gold was laundered through shell companies in the food and medical supply industries.
In 2012, the 476 pounds of gold, believed to have originated from Guyana, was stolen from the Guyanese fishing boat Summer Bliss, which was docked in the Dutch Carib-bean island of Curacao.
Based on the information this newspaper receiv-ed then, the vessel was on its way to Miami but made a stop in Curaçao. The gold was valued at approximately US$11.5 million.
News agency Amigoe had reported that six men, armed with guns and wearing masks and hoodies along with police jackets, stormed the boat. At gunpoint, they pushed the 51-year-old captain as well as the three Guyanese crewmen onto the ground. The robbers knew their way around the vessel as they walked directly to the three metal boxes with the gold bars and spent only five minutes removing them.
It was suspected that the gold was smuggled in batches from Guyana to Suriname over a period of time, after which it was melted into gold bars, loaded in the Summer Bliss and transported to the neighbouring country. Another theory is that they were loaded into a vessel right in Guyana before it set sail.
In September of 2022, several men were charged jointly with stealing 1,000 ounces of raw gold from Bibi Acklema Goberdhan.
According to the police, Satrohan Seegobin and his father, contractor Bhaloonauth Seegobin found the gold while conducting repairs on the home of Goberdhan, who they only identified as a businesswoman who had been a gold dealer for a number of years. No charge was brought against her for hoarding gold even though she was in clear contravention of the law.
The Gold Board Act makes it illegal for persons who are not producers to have raw gold in their possession and stipulates that it must be sold to the Board or to any agent authorized in writing by the Board.
