Nine officers from the Guyana Police Force (GPF), three from the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU), and one from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) on Friday completed an International Passengers Interdiction Course conducted by the United States (US) Government under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI).
The five-day course was held at Police Training Center, Camp and Young Streets and was facilitated by two officials from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agency. These officials shared best practices on the processing passengers at the ports of entry.
Practical training was also facilitated by officials from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCCA) and Caribbean Airlines. The course included training on fraudulent documents, passenger targeting and analysis, interviewing techniques, smuggling and luggage examinations.
GPF’s Deputy Commissioner of Law Enforcement, Seelall Persaud said that the partnership between the GPF and the US Embassy is one that the Force values immensely. He noted that since the launch of the CBSI, Guyana has benefitted from a number of programmes, particularly in the area of training.
He explained that a monitoring mechanism has been set up at the Home Affairs Ministry that also includes officials from the embassy to conduct regular evaluations to ensure that the programmes that have been initiated are working and review the progress made.
The Force’s training officer will also be developing similar programmes for other joint services ranks.
Meanwhile, recently appointed US Deputy Chief of Mission, Bryan Hunt said that over the past four years, the CBSI has made considerable progress in addressing a host of security-relates issues such as: illegal narcotics trafficking and maintaining public security.
He said that this course builds on the collaborative efforts by helping to strengthen the capacity of airport security personnel to detect and prevent illegal activity while still facilitating legitimate trade and travel.
“Airports are a key line defence against terrorists as well as drug and human smugglers, but maintaining this line of defence requires staying one step ahead of criminals,” Hunt said.
The CBSI is a Caribbean-US partnership that was launched by President Barack Obama at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad in April 2009. It aims to build capacity within the region’s security sector and fulfills a commitment to deepen regional security cooperation. (GINA)
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