Benn alarmed at scrap metal cocaine shipment
-says it had to have been in planning for months
Expressing alarm that 11.5 tonnes of cocaine was able to slip by the security system here, Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn yesterday said that the operation which was eventually foiled by Belgian police had to have been in planning for months and he also disclosed that law enforcers encountered explosives during a search of one house.
Meanwhile, pressure is building on the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to deliver scanned images of the scrap metal container which was believed to have contained the cocaine amid reports that there had been tampering with the image. The tampering would point to serious collusion at the GRA between employees and drug traffickers.
Speaking on the sidelines of a community policing event at Eve Leary, Benn said the authorities are “extremely” alarmed that the shipment passed through the surveillance system without being discovered.
“Of course, I have to say that we are extremely alarmed at the fact of the shipment, of the fact of it escaping or being allowed to pass through the surveillance systems in terms of container scanners, container checks and all those things in relation to the matter,” Benn said.
He added that the movement of the shipment out of the country could not have happened “overnight”.
He said it appears as though it has been in preparation for several months.
“Of course, the thought is that this activity could have not have happened overnight. It had to be in preparation and planning for a long period of time and that it has taken quite a bit of time to plan and do the logistics and to, I think to comprise persons and fooling others too in respect of making the shipment. So it had to be several months in preparation,” Benn said.
According to Benn, local authorities have given their overseas counterparts the assurance that all efforts will be made to determine who was involved in perpetrating the crime
“We have assured the European authorities, the Belgian law enforcement authorities and also the US authorities of our vigorous engagement of coming to terms and dealing with and discovering those who were involved in perpetrating this crime,” Benn noted.
He also told reporters that as part of the probe, law enforcement officers carried out several raids over the weekend during which they encountered explosives at a house.
“Care was taken to enter a particular house because
there appeared to be “rigged up” explosives arrangement at the normal entrance to the house,” Benn said.
“The efforts of our law enforcement at CANU and the Police are being attended by risks”, he added.
Up to yesterday, the authorities were still to be provided with images by the GRA of the container.
This is according to Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU), James Singh who told Stabroek News that five containers were scanned on the day in question.
To date, Singh said the GRA has only provided images from four of the five containers.
“We are still waiting on GRA to provide the images….They seem to be experiencing some technical glitch,” Singh said.
Sources close to the investigation had told Stabroek News that the container was scanned but it appears as though the images from the scanner were altered or deleted.
In the meantime, Singh said that the probe is ongoing and four persons including employees of GRA are being questioned. “We are waiting for the evidence to be provided so they can be interviewed about it,” Singh said.
Efforts are still being made to apprehend shipper of the container, Marlon Primo.
Singh related that CANU has since reached out to Primo’s family seeking their assistance. “We have reached out to his family again asking them to help us to find him or to get him to surrender because we are very concern about his safety and security,” he said.
Last week, law enforcement officials in Belgium announced that they were probing the discovery of 11.5 tonnes of cocaine in the container of scrap metal shipped from Guyana.
The shipment, which is being described as “the largest overseas drug bust ever, worldwide,” was seized upon its arrival at the Port of Antwerp. It carries an estimated street value of 900 million Euros.
The Brussels Times had reported counter-narcotics prosecutors as saying that they tracked the transatlantic journey of the cocaine from Guyana.
“The massive load of cocaine left a port in Guyana in late October and prosecutors were able to track (it) following the dismantlement of a drug trafficking gang led by a former Belgian counternarcotics chief which revealed the existence of tight-knit links between criminal gangs and counternarcotics and law enforcement officials,” the report explained.
The Belgian newspaper further said that law enforcement officers were expecting the “record-breaking” shipment since it is suspected it left the port of Guyana after the drug gang’s arrest in Belgium.
“Three police officers, a port manager and a lawyer were among twenty others who were arrested as part of the operation which targeted the “wellstructured” criminal organisation suspected of orchestrating large and “regular” drug shipments from South America to Belgium,” the report noted.
The dismantlement of the drug gang in late September, the Brussels Times said, had led to the arrest and indictment of 22 persons, three of whom are still in the Netherlands awaiting extradition. “Following the record-breaking drug bust on Wednesday, three others were arrested, including one person who is facing extradition to Belgium from the Netherlands,” the report added.
The intercepted shipment has once again raised questions about the processing of the containers before they depart Guyana.
In August, authorities in the German port city of Hamburg found over €300 million worth of cocaine in a cargo ship container from Guyana containing rice. The cocaine which weighed 1.5 tons was found in a freight container. It is believed that the drug was inserted in the Dominican Republic where the vessel stopped before the cargo was taken to Hamburg.