– Court hears explosive allegations of ‘international criminal enterprise’

THE high-profile extradition proceedings involving prominent businessman Azruddin Mohamed and his father, Nazar Mohamed, commenced on Friday before Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

The duo, who are wanted by the United States government on allegations of money laundering, gold-smuggling, and wire fraud, were each granted $150,000 bail and ordered to surrender their Guyanese passports.

They were further instructed to report to the Officer-in-Charge of the Ruimveldt Police Station every Friday between 13:00 and 15:00hrs, starting November 7, 2025.

The matter has been adjourned to November 10, 2025, for continuation of the proceedings to determine whether sufficient evidence exists to warrant their extradition to the U.S.

The extradition request, formally received by the Government of Guyana on October 30, 2025, stems from an indictment unsealed in the Southern District of Florida.

The charges accuse the Mohameds of money laundering, wire fraud and gold-smuggling offences alleged to have generated millions of U.S. dollars through illicit cross-border transactions.

The father, 73, of Lombard Street and Mr. Azruddin Mohamed and his son, 38, of Republic Park, were arrested earlier on Friday by ranks from the Guyana Police Force at separate locations in Georgetown.

Representing the U.S. government via Zoom, Jamaican attorney Terrence Williams, KC, urged the court to deny bail, calling the Mohameds “flight risks” and “key figures in an international criminal enterprise” with reach across South America, the Middle East and the United States.

The U.S. prosecution alleged that the Mohameds’ operations include connections “reaching in high offices in Venezuela,” the U.S. and the Middle East, and warned about their connections posing a serious hindrance to the course of justice.

“The information we have is that [they] have been in contact with authorities in Venezuela,” the prosecution told the court as he raised an alarm of the motives, noting that if granted bail, the Mohameds could “tamper with justice,” as there are witnesses to the crime who live in Guyana and could be dissuaded and so “interfere with the just outcome of the trial in the U.S.”

Amidst the explosive allegations being posed by the U.S. prosecution, it was further alleged that the Mohameds have supported local criminal activities and civil unrests, which have undermined public order and security in Guyana.

The defence, which consisted of Attorneys-at-Law Siand Dhurjon, Nigel Hughes and Roysdale Forde, sharply rejected the allegations.

Dhurjon argued that the move to extradite the father and son is unconstitutional and outside the court’s jurisdiction. He also noted that two of the charges, wire fraud and mail fraud, are not extraditable offences.

Additionally, Hughes and Dhurjon sought a commitment from the U.S.’ legal representatives that their client would not be rendered to the U.S., referencing the case of convicted Guyanese drug trafficker Shaheed “Roger” Khan, who was arrested in Suriname, flown to Trinidad and then handed over to U.S. Marshals, who flew him to New York.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines, Azruddin vehemently denied allegations and distanced himself from the gold business.

“This gold business, the exportation of gold is not my business, is my father business. I am a gold miner,” Azruddin told reporters.

Mohamed’s Enterprise operated as a gold wholesaler and exporter based in Guyana, selling gold primarily to buyers in Miami and Dubai.

FORMAL REQUEST FOR EXTRADITION

The Guyana Chronicle had previously reported that, according to a statement from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, “Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed were arrested this morning by members of the Guyana Police Force, duly authorised to do so by a warrant issued by a Magistrate of the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.”

The AG’s Chambers detailed that the arrest warrant was issued after a team of attorneys, King’s Counsel Terrence Williams, Herbert McKenzie, and Celine Deidrick, presented to the Magistrate an Authority to Proceed from the Government of Guyana, accompanied by an application for an arrest warrant “as is mandated under the provision of the Act.”

The statement further revealed that the Mohameds are the subject of an indictment unsealed on October 6, 2025, by a U.S. Grand Jury in the Southern District of Florida, charging them with multiple offences, including wire fraud, mail fraud, money-laundering, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and customs-related violations linked to an alleged US$50 million gold export and tax evasion scheme.

“The indictment alleges that between 2017 and June 2024, the accused conspired to defraud the Government of Guyana by evading export taxes and royalties on over 10,000 kilogrammes of gold, using falsified customs declarations and re-used export seals to disguise unpaid duties,” the statement outlined.

The indictment also references “the attempted shipment of US$5.3 million in undeclared gold seized at Miami International Airport, and the alleged under-invoicing of a luxury vehicle valued at over US$680,000.”

According to the AG’s Chambers, U.S. authorities began investigating the Mohameds in the mid-2010s, with intelligence and law-enforcement co-operation between Guyana and the U.S. dating back to 2016–2017.

The alleged scheme is said to have operated “from in or about 2017 through June 2024.”

The statement recalled that in June 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Mohameds and Mohamed’s Enterprise for alleged tax evasion, trade-based money-laundering, and gold-smuggling.

The Government of Guyana, the statement said, was officially informed of the U.S. investigation “through diplomatic channels following the June 2024 sanctions.”

U.S. agencies involved include the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In March 2025, the Guyana Government received a comprehensive dossier of evidence from U.S. authorities under mutual legal assistance arrangements. The documents reportedly contained evidence of falsified customs declarations, gold-export irregularities and undeclared shipments seized in Miami.

The AG’s Chambers said that “the two Mohameds will now be processed in accordance with the extradition framework set out in the provisions of the Fugitive Offenders Act, as amended, in due compliance with the relevant provisions of the Constitution of Guyana and all other relevant laws.”