AGENTS of the Guyana Revenue Authority Enforcement Arm were up to press time, Thursday evening, grilling a man who was detained by the police as the ranks responded to a report of suspected smuggling activities on the Belfield foreshore, East Coast Demerara.
Detained is 28-year-old Reeaz Ali, a barber by profession, of 145 Marshan Street, Annandale, East Coast Demerara. Guyana Chronicle was told that the man, along with others, was loading several bags of smuggled chickens from a boat at the foreshore into a minibus when the police arrived and interrupted the illegal operation.

As the police arrived, they came under fire from a man who was inside the boat. Guyana Chronicle was told that as the police arrived on the seawall, they noticed five men– three on the mudflat, one next to a minibus, GEE 8771, and another in the boat.  The man in the boat reportedly opened fire on the ranks who were forced to return fire while taking cover. They then began advancing in a tactical manner, according to police sources, but the three men who were on the mudflat managed to make their way onto the boat; the boat then speed off.

The police then turned their attention to the other man who was at the minibus and he was detained. A search of the bus found that there were more than eight bags of chickens, suspected to have been smuggled and which they men managed to get into the bus before the police arrived.  The man was detained and escorted to the Cove and John Police Station where he was processed and then handed over to the GRA officers. Police sources said that the chickens weighed some 830 pounds. The investigations into this matter are ongoing. None of the police ranks was injured in the incident. Three weeks ago, a joint operation by a number of agencies to tackle a smuggling operation in Mahaica Creek resulted in a CANU rank being shot and injured even as those who attacked the ranks managed to escape.