…Yupukari area on radar for narco trade

By Fareeza Haniff
THE abandoned aircraft found at an interior airstrip bears a bogus United States (US) registration and the area where it was found was on the radar for the illicit drug trade, Cabinet Secretary Joseph Harmon has revealed.

The twin engine Cessna Aircraft was found Wednesday at the Yupukari Airstrip, Region 9, (Upper Demerara/Upper Takatu) bearing registration number N767Z, but Harmon told a post cabinet media briefing Thursday that investigations conducted by the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Customs Ant-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) found that there is another active aircraft in the US with the same registration number.

The Cessna 441 Conquest 11 is said to be a very expensive aircraft, with an aviation official putting the price at US$2M. The official said too that it is extraordinarily strange for such type of craft to be found at the location. Guyana Chronicle was also told that the payload of the plane is about 4000 pounds minus fuel and has a range of 2500 miles on fuel.

He further explained that the area has been under regular and constant surveillance because in the past an airstrip not very far from that location was actually used for aircraft that were connected to the illicit drug trade.

“The members of CANU, the police force, the ranks are there. They’re checking the aircraft to determine whether in fact it had a cargo, whether the cargo has been disposed of or what,” Harmon disclosed.

Army Chief of Staff Brigadier Mark Philips had told the Guyana Chronicle that the aircraft was spotted by residents of Yupukari who alerted the GDF and the police and according to Harmon a joint patrol was sent in and found the aircraft partly hidden. “It was off of the airstrip itself and there seemed to have been some kind of a camouflage net that was thrown over it and it was partly in the bushes so we get the sense that it would have been there a few days,” the Cabinet Secretary revealed. He believes that the aircraft was not at the location for too long, “because these joint services patrols now they go in the North and South Rupununi on a regular basis so they are in touch with the villages, they’re in touch with the communities and that connection of community to the joint services, that information connection is working well for the defence and security of our borders.” Government intends to release more information on the aircraft as the investigation is ongoing.

Not the first time here that authorities have stumbled on illegal aircraft in the hinterland. Back in March 2005 police had stumbled on a Cessna 206 aircraft with duplicate registration said to be used in Venezuela. The Cessna with black and grey stripes with an emblem suspected to be that of Venezuela on its tail was first observed to be bearing the number YV0880P.

Police had issued a wanted bulletin for Gary Anthony Grandison, whose address was given as Lot 13, Guyhoc Gardens and 13, Prince William Street Plaisance, East Coast Demerara. One of the men for whom wanted bulletins had been issued later turned himself over to police but no charges were laid in connection with the plane. The white single engine aircraft had among its features a special drop door, as well as on-board fuel tanks to facilitate long-range flights, an indication that it may have been used in some illegal activity, including the trafficking in narcotics or persons, lawmen here had said.

Additionally, in October 2012 an Ecuadorian-registered 421 Cessna plane was seized at an illegal airstrip at Pirara, Region Nine. The plane was quickly repainted and its registration number changed, when authorities here had found it.