– Minister Ramjattan says

PUBLIC Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, said local law enforcement will be provided support to seize the assets of drug lords as government moves to dismantle the drug trade.
Ramjattan was, at the time, speaking at the commissioning of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) $41M administrative building at the agency’s Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown headquarters on Thursday.

The construction work on the building began on April, 2018 and was completed by Royal Contracting Services.

Minister Ramjattan said over the past three years, the government has made strenuous efforts to ensure funding is available for the development, infrastructure, maintenance and workforce of CANU.

Ramjattan said more funds will be injected into the law enforcement activities of the agency.

“We would expect more interdictions, more successful prosecutions, especially those at the upper level of the drug trade; that is where we want prosecutions to come from,” he said.
The minister said persons need to work under proper conditions and the infrastructure needs to be made available in order to boost workers’ productivity.
He explained that CANU has increased its strength by 140 per cent and has boosted its investigative capacity.

Minister Ramjattan explained that with revenue from the oil and gas sector, more funds will be pumped into CANU’s development.

Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) Deputy Head, Leslie Ramlall, said the unit’s success could not have been possible without the unwavering support of the Public Security Ministry and by extension, the Government of Guyana.

“Not only has the government committed to ensuring that the unit’s performance continues to improve through budgetary allocations, but also through the promulgation of various legislations which have afforded all other stakeholders to be equipped with the tools necessary to combat narco-trafficking and its related crimes,” he said.