DEPUTY Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud, yesterday said that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) are investigating the 27 kilogrammes of cocaine which were found at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) over the weekend.

He was at the time speaking to reporters after the opening ceremony of the U.S. DEA/GPF Drug Investigators Course yesterday at the Police Officers’ Mess, Annexe, Eve Leary, Georgetown.
Persaud added that two kilogrammes of cocaine were discovered under a vehicle at the CJIA while another 26 kilogrammes were intercepted by CANU on an aircraft.
He noted that the GPF is convinced that drug traffickers continue to work in collaboration with members of the law-enforcement agencies.
He stated that the recent drug busts resulted from an intensified effort to clamp down on the drug trade and added that it has to do with capacity-building, provision of the right motivation and also what is going on in the minds of officers on the ground.
Meanwhile, Head of CANU, James Singh, said that CANU has no evidence implicating any of his officers in the recent drug busts.
However, he added that if during the investigation they find any officer or agency involved, then the necessary action will be taken.
Singh told reporters that the fact remains that there is continued law- enforcement vigilance but they have to be more aggressive and proactive in ensuring that the entire area is properly monitored.
Singh added that with the U.S. DEA Drug Investigators Course it will prove necessary to the local law-enforcement agencies in which their agents will be trained to combat the illicit narcotics trade.
CANU officials have since held eight persons including security personnel and baggage handlers after a 25kg cocaine bust at the CJIA early Sunday morning.
CANU, acting on a tip-off, waited for the suspected suitcase to be loaded on a John F. Kennedy Airport-bound Caribbean Airlines Limited flight before moving in.
The anti-drug agents upon checking the aircraft found 61 suitcases, instead of the 60 that passed through the security check.
The untagged suitcase with the cocaine was placed in a separate bin of the plane and the flight was scheduled to depart at 23:45 hours on Saturday, but was delayed for over two hours to facilitate the search.
The search was conducted in the presence of several airport and airline officials, and the baggage handlers attached to the New Timehri Handling Service, who loaded the plane, were arrested, along with the security personnel, who, overlooked the loading.
While there have been major successes by CANU and other anti-drug enforcers at the airport, there might still be drugs that are slipping through the airport and it appears as though drug mules have “major” connections at both the CJIA and JFK airports, based on investments by the drug lords in large quantities of cocaine and the risk involved.
This is CANU’s third major bust at the airport so far for this year.