A 36-year-old labourer was on Wednesday morning caught red-handed at a Guyana/ Brazil illegal border crossing at Mango Grove, Lethem with a quantity of items he smuggled into the country.

The country’s borders are currently closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic.For weeks persons have been crossing the border illegally into Brazil despite that country’s alarming record of COVID-19 cases.

Steve Lamazon of Mango Grove is currently in police custody assisting with investigation.
The Guyana Chronicle understands that on Wednesday morning around 04:45 hours, police acting on information received, went to an illegal crossing at Mango Grove, where they saw Lamazon with a wheel barrow with several items.
Upon seeing the police, persons, who were in a boat which was used to smuggled the items into Guyana from Brazil, made good of their escape off of these shores.

When questioned by the police, Lamazon admitted that having smuggled items that came from the town of Bonfim, Brazil for himself and other persons.
The police seized 40 cases of Blackstone Brazilian rum, 52 cases of Brazilian beers and 4 boxes containing a quantity of cosmetics.

Brazil has seen its recorded cases of COVID-19 climbing sharply in recent weeks, second only to the United States.More than 560,000 cases have been recorded with 30,000 plus deaths listed.The Ministry of Public Health has been pleading with residents in border areas to desist from crossing into other jurisdictions in an effort to contain the pandemic.