CANU boss gives overview of Unit’s operations
–    says use of technology such as GPS at core of drug fight
HEAD of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), Mr. James Singh gave an overview of the Unit’s work on Wednesday last.
The occasion was the release of the 2010 National Drug Report, at Police Officers’ Mess, Eve Leary Georgetown, where he recalled that CANU was established through a 1994 Cabinet decision that was implemented in August 1995. Singh said CANU  operates under the National Drugs and Physiographic Substance Control Act, which was further amended, in 1999, to give it the same powers as the Guyana Police Force (GPF).
He explained that, due to its geographic location, Guyana is recognised as a transshipment point for narcotics going to Europe, which makes it susceptible in the production and importation of marijuana.
Singh noted that the ripple effect is due to the law enforcement and international attempts to stem the flow of drugs in other countries and demand initiatives taken by national bodies.
He said: “We deal with the nexus between crime and drugs. Recently, there is more evidence to say that there is a nexus between drugs and terrorism in which terrorist groups are using the narcotics trade to fund their activities both economic and social.”
Singh told the gathering that the drug routes show cocaine coming from the Western Coast of South America and Colombia to the Andean region going to West Africa, which is used as a warehouse for drugs.
He said, too, that routes through the Caribbean region are used to traffic drugs, to the United States (U.S.), Canada, the Caribbean itself and Suriname, as a result of direct flights to Europe.
Singh said there is also evidence of drugs moving into the Caribbean Region to be traded for cocaine in Jamaica, Grenada and into Guyana.
According to him, the main objectives of CANU is to detect, prevent and seize narcotics such as marijuana, cocaine, amphetamine, etc., to apprehend, prosecute traffickers, drug offenders, mules and persons who are involved in illicit activities and to maintain effective presence at all ports of entry.                                                        
“Our local collaboration is as a result of several task forces being created through the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA). These task forces are the legal weapons for narcotics, the contraband and fuel smuggling. In addition, there are several committees, created by the MOHA, giving aviation international status,” he related.
Singh disclosed that there is also a Hinterland Committee, which is focusing on security implications as a result of the new roads and trails that are being created in the interior as a result of new communities being established by mining.

WORKING CLOSELY
He added that, in regional cooperation, CANU is working closely with Customs and other agencies in the relative CARICOM countries, such as Jamaica, Barbados, St. Lucia, Suriname and Antigua.
Their international participation range from the U.S. Drug Enforcement sponsored conference, where regional heads of law enforcement agencies meet and share intelligence before the conference. In preparation, at regional and international levels, they present what they are doing in their regions to fight drug trafficking in their respective countries.
“Recently, a Latin America agreement, which focuses on demand reduction on how best to sensitise and educate while working together with trends, we recognised that drug trafficking is no longer our problem but everyone’s problem. One thing I must say, it is noted, at these conferences, that Guyana is doing a lot. When we attend these conferences, our aim is to get everybody to work together and present what we have done locally, working with other agencies that we have established,” Singh related.
He said, in some countries, they are now working on crime observatories, among other things. “But, in Guyana, we have already established those and we have had several operations with other agencies such as U.S. drug enforcement, the South African Police Services and Suriname, which goes to show how far our level of cooperation goes regionally and  internationally.”
Singh explained that CANU deploys ranks in the North West District, where it has intelligence presence in Morawhanna and Ogle and CJIA airports, post offices, Moleson Creek crossing and Lethem area.
His narrative continued: “In addition to some of CANU’s operations, like airport and eradication exercises, maritime joint operations with neighbouring countries as well as local operations, searches based on intelligence provided and working with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and other State agencies in doing aerial reconnaissance of clandestine airstrips, our porous borders, waterways, trails and roads in mining, settlements established, airstrips monitoring, in which intelligence is key. It’s a challenge for us as it relates to cocaine concealed in which various methods are employed by drug traffickers for shipment.”
Singh said capacity building is also a strong point in CANU’s work because it has to stay one step ahead of the drug traffickers with the use of a global positioning system (GPS), satellite, and software to help track, trace, analyse trends and methods used to jam CANU’s communication systems to intercept information of flights, etc.
He declared: “It’s a game but we operate within the law. We have to provide protection and, as such, the use of  scanners at airports are meant to further strengthen international trade as well as upgrade of our systems, in which newer technologies are implemented.”