-uncovers irregularities in local handling
August 22 ,2020
Based on the investigation it has conducted so far, the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) has said there is no “conclusive” evidence that the cocaine found by German authorities in a shipment of rice from Guyana had been loaded here.
This disclosure was made on Thursday night by CANU, which signalled that the narcotics was possibly loaded while the hipment was in-transit in the Dominican Republic. It did, however, uncover a number of “loopholes” and “irregularities” in the local handling on the shipment. As a result, CANU said that it is engaged in a collaborative investigation with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to fix the situation.
Authorities in Hamburg early last week announced that they were probing the discovery of a tonne and a half of cocaine in a container of rice that originated in Guyana.
A Deutsche Welle report said the seizure was made after investigators at the Joint Customs and Police Investigation Group (JIT) reportedly received a tip-off about drug smuggling. The cocaine, with an estimated street value of around €300 million (US$353 million), was hidden between sacks of rice in the container, the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper said.
The Deutsche Welle report had said all of the parcels had various symbols on them including a cat’s face, the Gallic rooster, and the Ampelmännchen (red and green traffic light symbols shown on pedestrian signals in Germany). Several hundred of the packages were marked with the same logo.
In a statement on Thursday evening, CANU noted that the container in which the suspected narcotics was found was among a shipment of 12 that comprised of 6000 bags of white rice intended for export to a company in Poland.
The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) last week Friday said that the container, which originated from a mill in Berbice, was consigned to a company, FHU KONPACK.
It was loaded on was MV Asiatic Wind on May 25th, 2020 and departed Guyana the following day destined for Poland.
According to CANU, its investigation confirmed that all of the containers were scanned locally and no narcotics were detected not did the seals appeared to have been tampered with. “It is key to note that the said vessel which departed Guyana arrived on June 7th, 2020 in another territory where the said 12 containers were reportedly off loaded in that territory and remained in –transit for a total of 6 days after which those 12 containers which included the one later found to be contaminated were then re-loaded onto another vessel different from the vessel that initially transported those 12 containers from Guyana,” it added.
It said the second vessel with the 12 containers and its other cargo then arrived in Hamburg, Germany on June 27th, 2020 and discharged the said 12 containers the following day, June 28th, 2020. The agency further related that the said twelve containers remained at their boarded location in Germany for several days after which they were then searched and the suspected narcotic were intercepted on August 10th, 2020.
Importantly, CANU said that newspaper clippings out of the territory where the containers remained in-transit were found to have been used to wrap some of the bundles of the suspected narcotic which were intercepted in Germany. As a result, teh agency said that it has “not yet found conclusive evidence that suggests that the suspected narcotic was loaded onto the contaminated container in Guyana.”
The GRDB had said the vessel arrived at Caucedo, Dominican Republic on June 7th, 2020 and was discharged on the same day. “Containers (were then) loaded on a vessel titled CMA CGM Jean Gabriel on June 13th, 2020. It departed Caucedo, Dominican Republic on the same day for Hamburg, Germany.
