— in bid to stamp out ‘ganja’ cultivation

By Indrawattie Natram

POLICE in ‘G’ Division (Essequibo Coast, Essequibo Islands) will be conducting more backland patrols in an effort to root out ganja cultivation and imprison those who are found guilty of the illegal act.

This is according to Divisional Commander, Khali Pareshram, who has reported that the division last year succeeded in unearthing as much as 14,979 grams of cannabis and 582 grams of cocaine during several stop-and-search and intelligence gathering exercises.

Those exercises have resulted in 58 persons being charged for possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking.

Pareshram said the accent this year will be on those cultivation plots, especially in the ‘back-dam’ areas, particularly with the recent acquisition of two All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) from the Ministry of Public Security.

He said that the ATVs have thus far proven very useful, as cops from the various stations in the region can now traverse rough terrain to ferret out ‘ganja’ planters wherever they happen to be operating.

Commander Pareshram said that ever since the two vehicles have been put into operation, the region has seen an increase in patrols in the Lima Sands, Mainstay, Tapakuma, Onderneeming and Mashabo communities; areas that were previously a challenge to access by regular vehicles.

He said that besides targeting ‘ganja’ cultivation this year, the police will also be working on sharpening their information gathering skills by liaising more with residents of the various communities.

One of the major challenges for the Division, the commander said, has always been the rampant use of narcotics, especially among the youths.

Just recently, Commander Pareshram said, three persons were busted with 42 kilograms of cannabis at Golden Fleece.

It happened when ranks stopped the car in which the suspects were travelling and conducted a search.

The drugs were found in two white bags, each containing 70 parcels wrapped with clear tape and brown cardboard.

Each parcel, the commander said, contained leaves, seeds and stem suspected to be cannabis.

The trio is currently before the court for the offence.