PRESIDENT David Granger on Monday called upon hinterland leaders to guard against illegal acts that may be occurring in or near their communities.

The president’s warning follows the discovery of an abandoned Brazilian-registered Beechcraft Kingair plane on an illegal airstrip some five miles west of the North Rupinuni community of Santa Fé, approximately two weeks ago.
At the opening of the National Toshaos Council (NTC), the Head-of-State said, “These are not matters which should be ignored.
“We must work together to protect our hinterland and border communities from the threat of trans-national criminal syndicates.
“We cannot have a situation in any region where a foreign aircraft lands and deposits contraband substances and no one saw, no one heard, no one knows what occurred.”
During his address before Toshaos and other leaders of indigenous communities across the country, President Granger stressed that trans-national cartels are of no use to the communities and the country as a whole.
“We have to take responsibility for our security, because these trans-national cartels do not wish us any good; they will destroy households, families, and communities,” the Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Services stated.
He made it clear that such nefarious activities in which trans-national cartels are involved tend to erode good governance, and can “bring violence and death”.

The Brazilian-registered aircraft at reference earlier, was discovered as part of a “due-vigilance exercise” following reports of the frequent sighting of a foreign aircraft over the Santa Fé area.
Police in a statement had said that based on additional intelligence, they’d paid a visit to the Santa Fé area, and upon conducting a thorough check found over a dozen ten-gallon jars of fuel in the bushes,and a swathe of land that had been cleared.

CIRCLING OVERHEAD

Then, as they were about to take leave of the location, the team of police officers observed an aircraft circling overhead some distance away. On returning to the cleared area, three men were spotted running away from the aircraft which had by then landed.

The aircraft has been identified by local aviation sources as a high-performance Beechcraft King Air model, with a load capacity of more than 10,000lbs on take-off.
During a thorough check of the aircraft, members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) when they got to the location, found a quantity of dry ration, medical supplies, gents clothing and footwear, two hand-held radios, flashlights, cellular phones and an identification card amongst other items.
They were also able to ascertain that the cleared area where the aircraft was landed is over a mile long and about fifty feet wide, and appears to have been recently graded.
The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority has since been notified about the discovery, and an investigation is ongoing.
At the time of the discovery of the illegal airstrip, the army had also found 12 abandoned camps, several dug-out trenches, one chainsaw, and an undisclosed quantity of fuel. This is not the first time an illegal aircraft has been seized by the State.
Last September, another plane, which originated in Columbia and was being used to transport drugs, was found near the village of Yupukari, in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).
And according to reports reaching the Guyana Chronicle, the aircraft was found in an area that was on the radar for the burgeoning drug-trafficking trade.

WORKING ON IT

Meanwhile, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon has said the government is working with local and international partners to build capacity and strengthen security. “The government is extremely concerned; we are concerned that these aircraft are utilising our large gaps in the security coverage in the hinterland areas, but we are looking carefully to see how we can have a proper coverage of those areas,” he was quoted as saying in a release issued by the Ministry of the Presidency.
He said, too, that the government has recognised that over a period of years, there are those who have taken advantage of the lack of adequate resources to properly monitor those areas.
He said the administration is taking this matter very seriously, and is making every effort to better equip the security forces, and strengthen their capacity to secure Guyana’s territory.
According to the release, the GDF, the Guyana Police Force (GPF)’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID), the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and other related agencies on Monday conducted an initial assessment of the twin-engine Beechcraft aircraft.
Minister Harmon has, perforce, issued a call on all Guyanese to play their part, and ensure that illegal activities, regardless of the location in which they take place, are reported to the relevant authorities.
“Guyanese are a part of the country’s national security apparatus. We would like to ask them to report any activity they may consider illegal,” Minister Harmon said, adding:
“It is illegal for any aircraft to land, or be in Guyana, unless they have the permission of the government and the GCAA.
“While we have large expanses of land in the Rupununi that can be used for airstrips, it is illegal to have these airstrips. We should see ourselves playing an important part in our country.”