Exporter wanted for questioning
A wanted bulletin was yesterday issued for local exporter Reginald Rodrigues for questioning about the Cdn$40 million drug bust that was made in Ontario earlier this month.
Reginald Rodrigues
In the bulletin, police said Rodrigues was wanted in connection with a seizure of 276 kilos of cocaine in Canada. The move comes five days after acting Police Commis-sioner Henry Greene had told Stabroek News that a local suspect had been identified and investigators were looking for him. Rodrigues’ age was given as 55 and his last known address as Lot 141 Victoria Street, Albouystown. He is 5’11” tall and has brown eyes, black hair and is slimly built. Anyone with information is asked to contact the police and all information will be treated with strict confidence, the bulletin said.
When Stabroek News visited the Albouystown area last evening, residents said the man was last seen about two weeks ago. One man said Rodrigues, who grew up in the area was a friendly man. Residents said he had been deported several years ago after serving time for drug possession. According to reports, Rodrigues was busted in Miami, Florida, ten years ago when he had gone to uplift a shipment, which was being sent to someone in New York. After the bust, Rodrigues was sent to New York where he and a co-accused were charged. Rodrigues was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison and after serving the time he was deported.
Contacted for details yesterday on the local leg of the investigation, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud directed this newspaper to the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), which he said was handling the investigation. Stabroek News had attempted to get a comment from CANU head James Singh, shortly after the Canadian police made the bust public. However, his secretary through a CANU officer said that Singh was not taking any more appointments for the rest of the year and asked that this newspaper call the office during the second week of January 2009. Meanwhile, Rodrigues reportedly operates an export business. The website www.reycleinme.com lists him as the contact person for Rodrigues Tropical Export Co Limited, located at Lot 141 Victoria Street, Albouystown.
A post dated February 25 of this year stated that the company had been in the export business for the past fifteen years and was interested in getting into the scrap market, in particular the supply of scrap batteries.
Two busts
In the space of two weeks, two busts similar in nature were made in Canada and the US Virgin Islands. They have been traced back to Guyana, having been found hidden in cartons filled with products that are manufactured here.
On December 8, officers found 276 kilos of high-quality cocaine at the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, aboard the ship, Tropic Canada. It regularly transports goods between St John and the Caribbean.
According to the Toronto Star newspaper, the drugs were traced back to Guyana, from where the padded freight containers were shipped out. The Star reported investigators as saying that the vessel in New Brunswick was confirmed to have been carrying 77-79 per cent pure cocaine, which was found inside boxes of hot sauce. They removed all but two kilos of the cocaine and performed a controlled delivery of the container to its original destination in Etobicoke. It was received by the owner of the company, Mahendrapaul Doodnauth, who unloaded the boxes at a rented storage facility on Rexdale Boulevard in Toronto. As a result, Doodnauth, of Toronto, was charged. There is no record at the Light House of the ship entering Guyana’s waters.
On December 24, a day after announcing one of the largest drug busts in Ontario’s history, Durham police working with the Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) tipped off the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) about the second shipment, which was stopped in St Croix, USVI.
According to the Star, the drugs, with an estimated valued of $14.5 million, were hidden in cardboard dividers in 139 boxes of food seasoning products also destined for Doodnauth’s business in Etobicoke.
The drugs were found after DEA agents raided the ship. Canadian law enforcement officials said more arrests were likely. Both operations were part of a major anti-narcotics initiative dubbed “Project Falcon,” which sought to identify the sources of the criminal network that transported cocaine to street gang members and drug abusers in the Durham region, in Canada.
More action
Yesterday, while not specifically mentioning the two recent drug busts, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee told the media he is concerned about the amount of drugs, in particular cocaine that is being smuggled from Guyana and being discovered overseas.
“We are not producing cocaine locally. It therefore means that the drugs are smuggled into the country and then smuggled to other countries,” the minister said.
He said that there is need for more action to be taken by the respective law enforcement agencies including CANU.
According to the minister steps are being taken by his ministry to ensure that the unit is adequately resourced with the requisite manpower and equipment, in keeping with the monetary resources available to the country as a whole. He said with the injection of a “breath of fresh air”– in reference to the recent shakeup of personnel — into the organisation his expectations are that there will be an improvement of the performance of the unit. He said that the unit has gone through some changes with the appointment of a new head and it is currently experiencing the anticipated adjustments to make it more effective as a unit tasked with the responsibility of combatting drugs in the county in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies. While there have been no local arrests in relation to many major drugs bust made over the years in various countries Rohee yesterday said there is ongoing collaboration between the local authorities and foreign authorities. When questioned the minister said that there is collaboration but there is a problem exposing the collaborations to the public as the “information can get into the wrong hands because there are always big, big bucks around to be paid” and these can compromise leads that are being followed both by the external and local law enforcement. “There are big bucks in the drug trade and again we come to the question of collusion. So you always have to tread very carefully when deciding the extent of the information in a matter like that,” the minister said.
Looks like we have a jungle lab in Guyana,with all the consessions owned by certain indivuals who are known by the public as dealers and not known by canu or the police as dealers but by the term prominent citizens of Guyana Mr Rohee you may be wrong on that one.it is time the focus goes on manufactures of cocane in Guyana.
This bust by the canadian authorities did not take rocket science or millions of dollars in equipment. Just good police work and some train dogs to locate cocaine. That’s it.
I don’t know the details of setting up such a unit in Guyana by CANU, but it does seem feasible. Should not cost much except the salaries and dedication of a few investigators, some training and upkeep for the dogs…and there you have it, a drug busting unit.
Now persons can be bribed, but the dogs cannot.
hmmmm….
I said so a VERY long time ago. I actually know a chemist who told me once while we were on a flight out of Guyana that a prominent poultry producer asked him to work in a lab he has. The ;ab wasn’t located in the city or its environs, he’d be going home twice yearly & would’ve been paid US$100,000/year. With all the “shady” characters owning concessions, ANYTHING is possible. Besides the madministration NEEDS such activities to support the messed up economy & to continue to fool dumb & blind supporters to believe that they are “doing well”. My suspicions were reawakened when that aeroplane with the US geology duo simply vanished.
Is not only MR RODRIQUE will be wanted for QQQQQQQQ.there is more names to come,we will see in days to come.
these drug barrons are all american graduates.
america should have kept them in jail for a longer time, 20-30yrs, we don’t have the resources or training to detect these activities, they have[america] spend hundred of millions of dollars and cannot solve the problem for sure guyana cannot.
Very well said,,,they are all trained by Americans,,all this cocaine is being consumed in the USA,,
America always takes the short-term option freespeech. That is why they are now tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan and PENILESS yet printing money like there is no tomorrow.
Don’t hold your breath therefore waiting for help from the US.
I don’t believe that the Gov’t of Guyana is keeping a close enough watch on those deportees who committed serious offenses abroad. Some of these deportees/drug barons were deported to a Paradise in favor of them. Instead of a prison cell they got warm sunshine, blue sky and tropical climate. The best part of it all is that the system in Guyana is far easier for them to buy and manipulate than that of the U.S. Canada.
So, when unchecked, weeds will thrive in an environment that favors them.
Puttin cyat to watch milk.
Wait till New Years report come out. Barbados Shippment is on the move.
The exportation of illegal drugs in Guyana (cocaine)will never cease…Guyana needs more than prayers….!!
Yes I!!!!!!!!!
Narco economy galore.
“Keep it “LIT”
Last Blog? You mean I can meet you in New York?
Well when u come to Guyana we shall meet! But i have found that the “talking” on this website are useless and in most cases baselsss for those in authority pays no attention to what most of us are saying, eventhough what we say here are true in most cases. It is for this reason alone why i have chose to just sit back and watch from far….from Tomorrow night i will not say anything more as it regards anything in Guyana and on this website…
Too much money to be made.
You got to write letters to the press, SHF, to the hard copy newspapers, where you get a wider audience, including the people who don’t have Net access. And the bloggers will still see and hear from you.
You’re right SF, it just seems to be getting worse. If the people in high office are not too trouble by the issue then its useless for other folks to make noise over it. It seems like rulers have their own ideology on how the country should be.
Oh! If you decide to write any letters to the press, know that some news source don’t like harsh criticism of the Gov’t or the country; they won’t publish it.
Rohee you know the big drug dealers go out and arrest them or invite the US to come in and get them.
Badlall…the US is stink with drug users and pushers…
Good luck with that, it will never happen.
Badlall would you persecute or jeopardise those who support you????
So, the chances of Albouystown getting a palace built in its community now seems “delayed” until the next successful shipment.
Reggie boy, you will never learn, now yuh have to hide forever.
Was the new head of CANU James Singh obligated to take a polygraph exam as his predecessor was?
Like puttin cyat to watch milk, ah tell ya!
Many of the new establishments that appear overnight are started from illegal sources of income then continue to operate as fronts for this illegal activity. ‘Catch me if u can’….in most cases when there is a bust it is just one of the many shipments that occur regularly. Rohee is right about one thing ‘there is plenty of bucks to go around’ ….grease a lot of palms…customs, police,canu, immigration. In a country where wages are inadequate this kind of activity will prosper.
By your reasoning that wages are inadequate, what would would be your explanation for the drug dealers in North America.
The real answer is GREED it is that get rich quick mentality. Once you start dealing in drugs it only become a question of time. If the drug officals dont get you your own kind will take care of you. Just remember that from day one you are living on borrowed time.