Government And Opposition Speak Out On Drug Conspiracy Linking Guyana

GEORGETOWN, Guyana CMC – The Guyana government says it is hoping international law enforcement authorities will liaise with their local counterparts here after the discovery of a multi-national drug shipment conspiracy involving the Mafia, Colombian and Guyanese drug dealers and smugglers.

President Donald Ramotar has directed Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee to contact his foreign counterparts to ascertain the extent of the local involvement.

Presidential Advisor Gail Teixeira said while there has been no response to date it has always been a challenge, particularly for developing countries to get certain types of information from others, in particular cases.

“From my own experience, as a former minister of home affairs, sometimes you have information, but the information isn’t always shared with you,’ she said, citing the 2009 Money Laundering Act where due to a lack of certain regulations in place, requests to trace money were denied by overseas law enforcement officials citing privacy laws.

Teixeira said the response times were certainly not what government would like, in some cases, but she was optimistic that government would be informed with some alacrity and not be dependent on what is read or gained via the media, “so that we can examine who was involved here but unless we have that information it’s difficult”.

Meanwhile, the main opposition grouping, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) said it was “alarm at the reports in the international media” that a Guyana-Italy cocaine conspiracy has discovered and that Guyanese narco-traffickers were working with Italian Mafiosi.

International media report said that at least 24 suspected narco-traffickers linked to the Gambino and Bonanno crime families and the Italian crime syndicate known as Ndranghetahad been arrested earlier this week in New York and Italy during the coordinated American-Italian “Operation New Bridge”.

The APNU said that while the government launched a national rug strategy master plan nine years ago, it has “not seriously confronted the challenge of narcotics-trafficking”.

“APNU is alarmed that the recent revelation of the existence of a Guyana-Italy cocaine conspiracy is evidence of a dangerous deterioration in public security.

APNU is of the view that the prevalence of narco-trafficking is a direct result of the failure of the Ministry of Home Affairs to implement a credible counter-narcotics strategy, to enforce domestic laws and to bring traffickers before the courts”.

The opposition said the “Guyana-Italy cocaine conspiracy confirms that Guyana is drifting towards becoming a narco-state,” adding “this must not be allowed to happen”.