Instead of dumping…
CUSTOMS Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) yesterday destroyed US$500,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis sativa (marijuana) with a value of US$150,000 at the former Ministry of Housing site on Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown.
Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Clement Rohee, who witnessed the destruction, said that it is an ongoing exercise to destroy drugs seized by CANU in various circumstances.
He said some of the related cases were dismissed in the Courts and a part of CANU’s mission is the eradication of drugs found in the country.
Rohee told reporters that, previously, the method of dumping was used but, this year, CANU decided to burn and assured that there is nothing sinister in that move as drugs are also burnt or dumped at sea by international enforcement agencies, too.
He said a similar exercise, next year, will depend on the success of CANU’s operations, because the agency has been trying its utmost, notwithstanding the physical complications in which it works.
Rohee said CANU now has established its presence at major ports of entry in Guyana, recently at Lethem, Rupununi and, soon, will be at Moleson Creek, Corentyne, from where there is a ferry crossing to Suriname.
He acknowledged a number of challenges in the struggle being waged to reduce the amount of narcotics entering the country as well as the number of fields cultivated by persons who wish to engage in the illegal activity.
“We have all the laws in place to address seizures and to place persons before the Court and prosecute them and we are, consistently, following the National Drug Strategy Master Plan, which, in that context, CANU is part of that exercise, as well,” Rohee stated.
He said the National Drug Strategy Master Plan has 34 programmes, 17 of which have been implemented and some are currently being implemented while the remainder are being considered, depending, to a larger extent, on external funding.
Rohee noted that there have been constant criticisms that the plan has been a failure but he does not agree that it has failed.
“We have executed 17 of the programmes already and 16 are currently being implemented, a good example to show our effort to implement this plan because we have just finished the review of that strategy that has been placed before the Defence Board for consideration and, hopefully, after the Defence Board has given its consideration to those matters, we will be guided on the next step we should take for a future strategy,” he explained.
Rohee said, by and large, given the challenges faced, in terms of drugs entering the country, both CANU and the Police have been making every effort at both the interdiction and prosecution levels.
“We wish them more success in the fulfillment of their missions,” he said.

FULLY COMMITTED

Rohee said the Government of Guyana is fully committed to eradicating and reducing, as far as possible, narcotics from this country because it realises the threat and, as such, an all out campaign, dubbed ‘No Tolerance’, has been launched.
Asked how soon the 16 programmes in the National Drug Strategy Master Plan will be implemented, he said it is not a matter of sooner or later.
“But, if you look at them, the 16 programmes have to do with inter-agency cooperation and collaboration. It is not that the Ministry of Home Affairs, by itself, is tasked with the responsibility. There are other Government agencies on board working together to assist in the implementation of these programmes,” he offered.
Rohee said: “We have set up a National Anti-Narcotics Commission (NANCOM) Secretariat to assist further with the greater collaboration/cooperation among the agencies and this is one of the other criticisms that have been unfounded. If you read the U.S. position paper that was put out they talk about….there is not enough collaboration/cooperation among the law enforcement agencies in the fight against drugs.”
He said he knew the criticism is not true, because there are a number of mechanisms that have been set up, such as the task force on narcotics and firearms and NANCOM Secretariat.
“So, some people might say mechanisms don’t mean anything but we have to start somewhere. This is a small country. We have limited resources and have to pool our resources together and we don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. When that lack of cooperation and collaboration happens, there is criticism in that respect,” Rohee observed.
He said the best thing to do is to pool resources together and see how best they can engage in joint operations and exercises to address the problem.
About the challenges CANU faces in executing its mandate, Rohee said, in all law enforcement agencies tasked with responsibility of fighting narcotics entering and leaving the country, it comes down to the question of human resources.
He said his ministry has been trying its best to enhance the human resource capacity of CANU, which is one of the agencies that is subjected to polygraph testing on an annual basis.