— following cocaine bust in Germany

THE Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) says it followed all the requisite procedures in light of the discovery of 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in rice on a cargo ship container that was seized in Germany, which passed through Guyana’s port.

The GRDB, in a press statement on Friday, noted that it has no policing role as the records show that the containers were scanned by customs authorities on May 21 and 22, 2020 before being loaded onto the ship.

According to the rice board, the officer on duty on the day the rice was packed confirmed that all of GRDB’s standard operating procedures were followed.

The GRDB said the rice originated from a mill in Berbice, and was consigned to a company, FHU KONPACK. The rice was then transported by several trucks from Berbice to the Georgetown wharf, and then loaded onto the containers at the wharf by labourers, a process which takes several hours.

“After the container is fumigated, and the shipping line seal and GRDB’s fumigation sticker is placed on the container, GRDB’s responsibilities end,” the GRDB said in a statement.

The vessel arrived at CAUCEDO, Dominican Republic on June 7, 2020 and was discharged on the same day. The containers were loaded on a vessel titled CMA CGM Jean Gabriel on June 13, 2020. It departed CAUCEDO, Dominican Republic on the same day and arrived in Hamburg, Germany on June 27, 2020 and was discharged the following day.

As such, the GRDB noted the officer on duty on the day the rice was packed confirmed that all of GRDB’s standard operating procedures were followed. The containers were inspected and checks were made in keeping with the operating procedures.

Meanwhile, the container in question was then taken to the city’s Waltershof customs office in Germany and examined in a testing facility.

Officers found 47 large packages hidden between the rice sacks and within those packages, a total of 1,277 small parcels with cocaine.

The parcels all had various symbols on them, including a cat’s face, the Gallic rooster, and the Ampelmännchen (red and green traffic light symbols shown on pedestrian signals in Germany).

Several hundreds of the packages were marked with the same logo.