CANU probing how 300lbs of cocaine left Guyana

…says in contact with counterparts to ascertain how drugs was placed in containers

The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) has launched an investigation to determine how two containers with cocaine left these shores, but were intercepted in Jamaica. The agency said it is currently in contact with its counterparts and investigations are on-going to ascertain how the narcotics were placed in the containers.

One container containing logs of lumber was found to contain a box with parcels of suspected cocaine and the second container contained multiple duffle bags that also contained parcels of suspected cocaine. The exact amount of drugs is suspected to be 306.5 lbs or 139.4kg.

According to the Jamaica Observer, scores of packages with the cocaine were found in containers at the Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL) on Monday afternoon. According to reports, the drug was found in two of six transhipment containers that arrived in the island from Guyana en route to Haiti and China.

Narcotics Police, accompanied by members of the Jamaica Customs Contraband Enforcement Team, reportedly found a total of 122 packages (110 in one and 12 in another), each with compressed white substance resembling cocaine. The total weight of the drugs is approximately 139.4 kilograms (307 pounds) and the estimated street value is US$6.59 million. No one has been arrested in connection with the seizure. The last time Guyana was fingered as a worrying cocaine transhipment point was in November 2020 when Belgium police had seized the “largest overseas drug bust ever” of cocaine coming from Guyana worth approximately GYD $222 billion.

A few months before then, Port of Hamburg — Germany’s largest seaport — had also announced one of the port’s largest drug busts after some 47 large packages of cocaine were found hidden between sacks of rice coming from Guyana. Former Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan told the Village Voice News in November that it is highly troubling that in a mere matter of months Guyana’s name is once again being smeared internationally as a major drug transit point and that efforts to keep the country off drug-related lists are now threatened by the recent developments.

“This thing is going to taint and tarnish us because of the massive amount…it’s going to put us back on that red flag in international circles and, for a variety of reasons, we might very well be on a checklist again. It could affect trade, it could affect so many other things. There are dire consequences whenever containers – whatever they have, whether it’s paddy, sugar, scrap metal — everything will be under so much more scrutiny when they reach those destination countries and even the in-transit counties,” Ramjattan predicted.