Director of the Customs Anti- Narcotics Unit (CANU), James Singh, believes that there are moves afoot by foreign drug traffickers to establish a big presence in Guyana.
He said such a move will be confronted by CANU and other law enforcement agencies here.
Speaking on the “Securing the Nation” podcast this morning, Mr. Singh said CANU is also faced with the burden of dealing with new synthetic drugs coming in from Europe and being shipped to other parts of South America.
He said foreign marijuana with higher THC content has also been finding its way into Guyana from North America, Colombia, Venezuela and Thailand. But one of the main issues, the agency is dealing with he noted, is the threat of foreign drug traffickers here.
“We also have the problem of members foreign drug trafficking organizations who are trying to embed themselves here in Guyana. Recently, we have seen a numerous of foreign members held alongside Guyanese outside of Guyana with large amount of cocaine, again this is an indication that they somewhat of a presence here,” the CANU director stated.
According to the CANU director, majority of drugs come into Guyana from neighbouring Venezuela by plane and or boat and is then transshipped to West Africa and Europe. He believes additional international help can intensify the fight against drug trafficking.
“What we are doing also is working with our international partners, we are calling for the presence of more foreign liaison officers to work alongside us in the fight against drugs. There are new methods of concealment, no longer are persons trying to hide cocaine in wood or in fish, but what they are doing now is contaminating commercial shipments after they would have been scanned and checked by law enforcement and contaminating them at transshipment points,” Singh stated.
He said CANU has been able to conduct several successful operations, seizing tons of cocaine here and assisting with intelligence in other parts of the world.
The interventions, he noted, are due to many partnerships with the Regional Security bodies as well as international agencies such as the DEA.
Singh said partnerships with the US, France, Colombia and Suriname are also seeing results.
“We can’t fight alone, we are fighting and enemy on different fronts, it’s a network and so partnerships are key and I stress the importance of it, not just from a unit standpoint but in the confidence in Guyana to ensure that we do not become a narco-state and that we do give our all to fight drugs on every level,” the CANU Director said.
Just recently, it was revealed that intelligence agencies abroad have informed local agencies of a threat against the life of the CANU Director. Those threats are suspected to have been birthed in neighbouring Venezuela.
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