–President Ali warns rogue gold operators,
— Urges them to comply with the law as gov’t aggressively cracks down on gold smuggling

President Dr. Irfaan Ali has put rogue gold operators on notice, issuing a blistering warning that anyone caught siphoning Guyana’s gold out of the economy will “lose your business,” as the government signals an aggressive crackdown on gold smuggling.

The President made these remarks this evening at the launch of GuyExpo 2025, which is being held from November 13 to 16, under the theme “Transformation through entrepreneurship and innovation.”
He noted that, according to the mid-year report, gold declaration is up by 10.9 percent this year, but it is still not where the government wants it to be.

The President said:  “I want those who enjoy the benefits of the incentives we have given for gold mining, those who still are not complying with the declaration, we are going to come after you hard and strong. We will find you, and you will lose your business. You are reaping the benefits from this sector; you have a responsibility to declare your gold, and you have a responsibility to do so not by choice, but by law.”

As he stressed the government’s zero tolerance for anyone defying the law, the President noted that one gold smuggler alone stole more than $190 billion from the Guyanese economy alone.

“We must ensure our system does not produce those kinds of people anymore,” he said, adding: “Our system must be locked in, must be protected, and must be designed to ensure those leakages are removed.”
According to the President, the stolen revenues could have significantly expanded national initiatives.
“Imagine the additional difference it would have made,” he said.

The President’s remarks come on the heels of the U.S. government, on October 30, 2025, requesting the extradition of father and son Azruddin and Azruddin Mohamed, under the extradition treaty between Guyana and the United Kingdom, which remains in force in Guyana under Section 4(1)(a) of the Fugitives Offender Act, Cap. 10:04, as amended by Act No. 10 of 2024.

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 kilograms of gold, using falsified customs declarations and re-used export seals to disguise unpaid duties.

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.”
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.
In March 2025, the Guyanese 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.