GRA secures $4.9M fine against chicken smuggler

A Magistrate in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, on September 22, 2022 ordered a defendant, Richie Shaw of lot 22 Mc Doom, East Bank Demerara (Padrak Poultry Depot), to pay a fine in the amount of $4,950,000 (three times the value of the goods seized) or to one year imprisonment in default of payment for knowingly concealing uncustomed chicken contrary to section 218 (c) of the Customs Act, Chapter 82:01.

The said defendant on that day, removed the smuggled chicken from its original ‘Rockingham’ packages and concealed same in black bags to evade and deceive law enforcement officers by ‘passing same off as local chicken’. The GRA however, with the assistance of the experts from the Veterinary Public Health Unit, Ministry of Health, managed to prove the contrary to the court, which led to the said conviction.

In a separate and ongoing matter, officers attached to the authority’s Law Enforcement & Investigations Division (LEID), on September 22, 2022 seized in excess of eighty-two (82) cases of smuggled liquor and over sixty-two (62) bales of cigarettes from a property at Atlantic Garden, East Coast Demerara, valued in excess of twenty million ($20,000,000) Guyana dollars. Investigations are ongoing.

The revenue authority, as it continues with a “zero tolerance” approach against smuggling and other illegal activities, thereby allowing for a ‘level playing field’ for legitimate businesses and the collection of revenue, once again, encourages persons involved in such activities to cease and desist therefrom, and bring themselves into compliance with the nation’s Tax, Trade and Border laws. (DPI)