MINISTER of Home Affairs, Mr. Clement Rohee, said Monday that Government is providing as much resources as the economy could afford to law enforcement, towards its commitment to combat the drug trade.

“At the same time, we have been cooperating with countries at the international, regional and bilateral levels to ensure that our resources are optionally employed, in this fight,” he told a press conference.

Rohee detailed the Government of Guyana anti-narcotics efforts, speaking about the challenges faced locally and how they are being manifested.

He said the law enforcement agencies continue to be faced with difficulties that are still not addressed, including the previously mentioned issue of bail being granted for some drug related offences.

“It is hoped that, with the full implementation of the Justice Sector Improvement Programme, this situation would, eventually, be rectified whereby matters could be concluded in a Court at a faster rate,” Rohee said.

He said there is already a substantial body of evidence to show that some of the persons charged and placed before the Court get themselves involved in committing the same types of offences for which they were charged, while awaiting trial.

Rohee noted that, between January to August 2009, of the 425 persons granted bail by the Court, 109 or 24 per cent were persons charged for possession, trafficking or cultivation of narcotics.

He said it must be borne in mind that, while the law enforcement agencies may charge persons, the final outcome of those matters rest with the Courts and, in order to improve the conviction rate, steps are being taken to ensure that the preparation and presentation of cases are improved, through the intensification of training of prosecutors and investigators which has to be an ongoing process.

Rohee said there are other factors that impinge on the success rate of the law enforcement agencies, in seizing more drugs and securing more convictions and they include the human factor and relate, in part, to the ability of the ranks assigned to anti-drugs units to resist temptation.

CAPACITY BUILDING
He said, to confront this reality, the law enforcement agencies are currently involved in capacity building and efforts are being made to assure that the best quality staff is recruited and retrained.

By way of integrity testing, polygraphing is being used as one of the screening tools available to the respective agencies to make sure no undesirables are among the ranks of the anti-narcotics units, Rohee said.

He said stronger supervision is being employed to ensure that fewer deviants are allowed to remain in the units.

At the same forum, Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), Mr. James Singh revealed that, for the period January to September 2008, the agency seized three kilogrammes 660 grammes of cocaine and 883 grammes of cannabis (marijuana) and, from January to September 2009, the seizure of cocaine by CANU increased to 52 kilogrammes 311 grammes while that of marijuana was 23 kilogrammes 314 grammes, an indication that the agency has been more active this year.

He said, in relation to the institution of charges, CANU charged four persons between January and September 2008 and for the same period, this year, the agency prosecuted 16 persons.

Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said the GPF confiscated 30 kilogrammes of cocaine in 2008 and charged 91 persons between January to September that year and for the corresponding 2009 period the seizures amounted to 66.6 kilogrammes cocaine and charged 119 persons.

Confiscation of marijuana by the Police between January and September 2008 netted 35,000 kilogrammes and 303 persons were charge, the Assistant Commissioner said.
He disclosed that, in 2009, up to September, the GPF took custody of 179,000 kilogrammes of marijuana and charged 407 persons.