ROBIN Barakat, a Canadian citizen named as a suspect in a cocaine smuggling ring here, turned himself in to the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) yesterday and is being grilled by investigators.

A source said the 37-year-old gave his name as Salim Paul and was accompanied by attorney Vic Puran when he turned up.

The source said he admitted owning a pawn shop in Georgetown and knowing Indarpaul Moninlall Doodnauth, another suspect being questioned by investigators but denied involvement in shipping cocaine to Canada. CANU agents are also looking for Barakat’s business partner Keith King, the source said.

Doodnauth, also known as Teddy, 48, a businessman of Lusignan West, East Coast Demerara, and brother of the man charged in Canada after the recent big cocaine bust there, turned himself in to officials last week.

Police had issued wanted bulletins for Doodnauth and Amalek Orlando Watson, 31, a self-employed man of Annandale West, East Coast Demerara.

Doodnauth and Watson were allegedly middle men in the shipment of two consignments of cocaine concealed among pepper sauce bottles from Guyana. They allegedly packed the cocaine into the boxes with the bottles of pepper sauce, the source said.

A central suspect in another ring, Nymrod Singh, 37, of 123 New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara, was held Saturday by police in Bartica and is being grilled by CANU and police officers, a senior official said.

Singh was wanted in connection with the interception of cocaine hidden in nibbi furniture and seized in Miami last week.

The cocaine was stashed in the furniture consignment here and shipment was arranged by a customs broker through a ghost firm, a source said.

The source said Singh is denying knowledge about the ghost firm, claiming that he met someone who asked him to ship the furniture and he knew nothing about the cocaine concealed in the consignment.

He was spotted in a Bartica hotel by persons who saw his photograph in the newspapers and alerted the police. Singh was arrested with about G$600,000 in cash, a source said.

Colombian suppliers of the 373 pounds of cocaine shipped from Guyana and intercepted last week in Miami are also on the trail of the buyers here for payment, the sources said. The shipment was valued at US$5.5M.

The customs broker who arranged the clearance and shipment of the nibbi furniture from Port Georgetown was among several persons under interrogation.

Also being questioned was the manufacturer of the shipment of furniture from Guyana in which customs authorities at the Port of Miami last week uncovered the 373 pounds of cocaine.

Acting on a tip-off, the agents found the cocaine in 194 packages, worth US$5.5M, in the furniture in a container on the vessel Rio Para.

Police and CANU agents are also looking for Reginald Rodrigues, 55, who owns Rodrigues Tropical Export based at 141 Victoria Street, Albouystown, Georgetown.

He was deported from the United States in 2001 after a three-year sentence in jail for conspiracy to import cocaine, the source said.

According to the source, investigators are also looking for his wife Edna, a swimming coach at the Colgrain Pool in Georgetown.

The two are believed to have slipped into Suriname through the ‘back track’ route and authorities there have been alerted, an official said.

American and Canadian agencies are helping CANU track cocaine smugglers here, especially on the East Coast Demerara, an official source said.

He said CANU is uncovering the names of more traffickers based on the East Coast Demerara with links to cocaine shipped to Canada and investigators are pursuing several leads to the ring.

Investigators have also uncovered connections between a cocaine network here and the ring allegedly run by a known drugs baron in custody in the U.S., sources said.

A cocaine shipment seized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the U.S. Virgin Islands last week was worth CAN$14.5M.

It was found on a vessel in an operation dubbed Project Falcon by Canadian agencies, including the Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Media reports in Canada said the consignment was destined for Caribbean International Food Distributors, the same company run by a Guyanese man charged by Canadian police in the major CAN$40M drug shipment earlier last week.

Mahendrapaul Doodnauth, 45, of Seguin Court in Toronto, is charged with importing cocaine, conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

The second container was searched in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, on Dec. 24 by DEA agents acting on information received from Canadian investigators, the Toronto Star reported.

Inside the ship, police found 100 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside cardboard dividers in about 140 boxes of food seasoning destined for the Etobicoke-based distribution company run by Doodnauth.

Along with the previous shipment, the amount of cocaine seized totals 376 kilograms, with an estimated street value of CAN$54.5M.

The first freight container from Guyana arrived at Saint John, New Brunswick on Dec. 8, where police found 276 kilograms of cocaine. When cut, it would have become approximately 400 kilograms of street-level cocaine, worth CAN$40M.