He surrendered Tuesday to the CANU base in Georgetown after being on the run for almost two months and has been released after interrogation, the source said.

The source said CANU is following new leads that have surfaced in the case and Canadian agencies with an interest in Rodrigues have been briefed on his surrender.

Police issued a wanted bulletin for the 55-year-old businessman after a major cocaine consignment concealed in a shipment of bottles of pepper sauce from Guyana was intercepted in Canada last December.

The source said Rodrigues, who was deported here from the United States in 2001 after a three-year sentence in jail for conspiracy to import cocaine, claimed he was in the Northwest and turned himself him accompanied by lawyer Vic Puran.

Officials said he owns Rodrigues Tropical Export at 141 Victoria Street, Albouystown, Georgetown.

Investigators believe Rodrigues slipped out of the country after the wanted bulletin was issued here for him in connection with the seizure of two consignments of cocaine.

The cocaine shipments, amounting to 376 kilos with an estimated street value of CAN$54.5 million, were destined for Caribbean International Food Distributors, a company run by Guyanese Mahendrapaul Doodnauth, 45, of Seguin Court in Toronto.

Doodnauth was charged by Canadian officials with importing cocaine, conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

His brother, Indarpaul Moninlall Doodnauth, also known as Teddy, 48, a businessman of Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, was allegedly a middle man in the shipment of the two consignments of cocaine.

He and another suspect in the case, Amalek Orlando Watson, 31, a self-employed man of Annandale West, East Coast Demerara, have been questioned by CANU in the probe. They surrendered to CANU after Police issued wanted bulletins for them.

The case has led to joint operations involving CANU, the Police and Army against narco-traffickers.

Agents from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were here last month tracking links in the interception in Canada of the cocaine consignments.

The first cocaine consignment was found in a container in Canada and another was uncovered in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, on Dec. 24 by DEA agents acting on information from Canadian investigators.