A cargo vessel that was busted early last week off the coast of Panama with over 43,000 pounds of cocaine making it the biggest maritime cocaine bust in history was in Guyana a few weeks ago, a report in the Associated Press has said.
The vessel frequented this country to offload shipments of fertilizers and the owner had ties with a local business firm.
The AP report said that according to Panama’s top drug prosecutor Jose Almengor, the drugs were found in containers on the ship.
On Wednesday the Reuters news agency reported that US and Panamanian authorities had seized 19.4 tonnes of cocaine on board the Ship MV Gatun in the Pacific. According to the Reuters report US anti-drug officials and Panamanian police found the narcotics hidden in the cargo area of the ship, which is registered in Panama.
Reports state that US Coast Guard officials detained 11 Mexicans and three Panamanians during the seizure. The Mexicans will be taken to the US to face trial, while the Panamanians will be tried in Panama.
The MV Gatun first caught the eyes of drug enforcement late last year when it changed course on its way to Guyana. The ship had left Venezuela with fertiliser for rice producers here. Stabroek News was told that the ship owner had ties with a local businessman here.
According to reports during the journey to Guyana the boat made a sudden change of course and headed to Mexico, claiming engine problems. A Guyanese official had sought the intervention of Venezuela to ascertain the reasons for the change. It is unclear when the ship got back on course and eventually arrived in Guyana. Stabroek News understands that the ship makes regular trips to Georgetown.
Reports are that a US Coast Guard patrol aircraft initially spotted the ship last Saturday week. After obtaining permission from the Government of Panama, a Coast Guard boarding team searched it on Sunday and discovered the drugs.
Officials believe fast boats from Colombia may have delivered the cocaine to the ship after it had passed through the Panama Canal.
According to the AP report most of the cocaine will be sent to the United States to be destroyed, but Panama will keep more than 200 pounds as evidence.
Meanwhile, a report in last week’s Tampa Tribune out of Florida said that the investigators of Operation Panama Express broke their record with the Coast Guard’s seizure of the large quantity of cocaine. According to the Tampa Tribune, Sunday’s interdiction of the freighter Gatun off the coast of Panama came 17 days after the US Coast Guard had stopped another vessel, the Ocean Song, carrying about 11 1/2 tonnes of cocaine south of Guatemala. In addition to being a record individual bust, the seizure made March a record month in international maritime cocaine seizures.
The Tampa Tribune said that so far this year, the Tampa-based international cocaine trafficking investigation had been responsible for six maritime interdictions, with more than 40 tonnes of cocaine seized or scuttled at sea, said Assistant US Attorney Joseph K. Ruddy, who oversees the task force from his office in Tampa, Florida.
According to the Tribune, Ruddy said that the task force had more than 80 agents and analysts working from Tampa to recruit and develop sources of information about maritime cocaine trafficking. The agents come from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforce-ment, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Coast Guard and sheriff’s deputies from Hillsborough, Pinellas and Sarasota counties.
The newspaper further reported Ruddy as estimating the street value of the latest Panama cocaine haul at about $400 million.
Investigators say drug traffickers have spread their activities outside Colombia to other countries in Latin America to thwart law enforcement efforts by making their operations less concentrated and more difficult to monitor. Guyana is seen as a trans-shipment point for cocaine destined for North America and Europe. Several shipments of drugs originating from Guyana have been seized overseas in the past.
