– US says DEA help could lead to capture of major traffickers

By Svetlana Marshall

GUYANA is becoming a less lucrative transit point for the trafficking of illicit drugs, mostly cocaine, as the cost to do “business” is on the increase, according to Bryan Hunt, outgoing Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy.

Hunt said every time there is an interdiction of narcotics at local ports, the cost to transport the drugs through Guyana to the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe escalates.

“…if we are effective at the ports of exit (where the drugs are transited out) it becomes far too costly for these trafficking networks to use Guyana as a transit point,” he told the Guyana Chronicle in an exclusive interview. “They will go somewhere else where the cost is not as high.”

Because of its porous borders, Guyana is known to be a transit point for illicit drugs, guns and ammunition. In August 2014, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the Guyana Defence

Force (GDF) seized a semi-submersible craft in a creek off the Waini River in the Northwest District.
The US, at the time, had said that seizure of the vessel was an indication that the trafficking networks were “stepping-up” their modes of transportation, moving away from high-powered boats to semi-submersible vessels, which are even harder to detect in countries like Guyana.

Compounding the local situation, the Control Tower at the main airport – CJIA – lacks the ability to detect planes entering or leaving the country outside of its radar. As such, planes can land on local interior airstrips, deliver their cargo, and take off without being detected by the law enforcement agencies.

“The DEA and CANU have established a very close working relationship, and I am confident that we are going to continue to see success; and most importantly, we will, in the coming months, begin to see people who are involved at a larger level in narcotics crimes being brought to justice.” – Bryan Hunt

In December 2007, the GDF discovered an illegal airstrip — some 80 miles upriver from Orealla in the Upper Corentyne — reportedly constructed to facilitate trans-shipment of narcotics and commission of illegal activities. An aircraft found destroyed there, a LET 410 turboprop, was determined by the GDF to have been manufactured in the Czech Republic, although it had been flying a Venezuelan flag.

Cognizant of the situation, Mr Hunt said the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), the Container Control Programme, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are now placing greater emphasis on points of exit from Guyana. Hunt said the plan is to make it extremely difficult to move illicit drugs, in particular cocaine, from Guyana to the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and other destinations.

As such, major attention is being given to the points of export, whether it is in the passenger terminal, cargo terminal or containerized terminal, even as the ‘metal sharks’ (aluminum boats) continue to man Guyana’s primary rivers.

“The hope is that, by doing so, we will find out who is responsible for bringing the cocaine into Guyana; who is helping the drug networks to move the cocaine here. And we can take down those larger fish, because what we have, admittedly, are the end person who is doing the export,” Hunt reasoned.

He said establishment of the US Drug Enforcement Agency here has helped CANU with “some very large seizures” as a result of the collaborative efforts of CANU, DEA, the Container Control Programme, the World Customs Organistion, the UK, and other local and international agencies — which are helping Guyana to “make the end export cost much too high, as drugs are interdicted.”

Earlier this month, ten persons were arrested in connection with the discovery of six kilograms and forty- four grams of cocaine in a cargo shipment of frozen fish at CJIA.

Several days after, a 21-year-old woman was caught trying to smuggle 3.040 kilograms of cocaine through the Eugene F. Correia International Airport. That woman – Angelica Forde – was on Tuesday sentenced to four years of imprisonment, along with a fine of $8.2M. Her husband, who was also implicated, has been remanded.

“The number of interdictions which have started to take place is indicative of the fact that we have better information-sharing between these entities. The DEA and CANU have established a very close working relationship, and I am confident that we are going to continue to see success; and most importantly, we will, in the coming months, begin to see people who are involved at a larger level in narcotics crimes being brought to justice,” Hunt predicted.

He added: “I am relatively optimistic that the legwork that is being done now by your law enforcement and our law enforcement will lead us back to the big fish that everyone talks about, and that we will be able to bring down the major traffickers who are using Guyana as a transit point.”