The United States has asked the Dutch island of Curacao to probe years of gold smuggling between the two jurisdictions and reports have surfaced of a dossier on illicit shipments from Guyana for the last 15 years.
Washington’s request could lead to further embarrassing revelations following the stunning US$11.5 million theft of gold on Curacao from a Guyanese fishing boat in November last year. The gold is believed to have come from Guyana but local authorities say they have not been able to verify this. Moreover, local authorities have not established contact with the Guyanese crew of the boat who would have been able to give chapter and verse on the shipment.
The January 25, 2013 edition of the Curacao Chronicle quoted a January 21, 2013 letter from Washington to Curacao in which the US asked authorities on the island to probe gold smuggling cases between Curacao and the United States.
The report said that it appears that these cases have been going on for 15 years now. The Curacao Chronicle said that one of the questions asked by the US is why the Curacao authorities are only probing the theft of the gold and not the role of custom officials in the case which the US says it “finds very questionable in gold smuggling cases between Guyana and Curacao.”
The Curacao Chronicle said that the US is of the opinion that the local authorities are conducting a “selective” investigation. It added that Washington says that there seems to be no leadership coming from the Curacao Public Prosecutor’s office and even on some pivotal issues the authorities have failed. The Curacao Chronicle report said the US also suggested that documents have been forged.
The Curacao Chronicle says that the US notes that one point which illustrates that the Curacao investigation is selective is that there is information about a “dossier” which states that for 15 years there has been gold smuggling in Curacao with gold from Guyana.
The newspaper report said that the gold comes to Curacao and leaves the island with legal documents heading to the United States.
Minister of Natural Resources and the Environ-ment, Robert Persaud told Stabroek News on January 24 that the report of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commis-sion officers who went to Curacao to trace the origins of gold seized from a fishing boat has provided no new insight and that the team was not able to find the Guyanese crew members.
Persaud said the report has been forwarded to the relevant agencies for their attention. “[The report] has provided no new insights on origin [of the gold],” Persaud said. “The team reported that the location of the crew could not be determined,” said Persaud.
The team had gone to the Dutch-speaking island to conduct their investigation into whether the gold originated from Guyana.
There had been earlier speculation that the gold might have been taken to Suriname and mixed with the precious metal from that country and then exported purportedly as having originated from Suriname.
Last week another suspect was arrested in Curacao in connection with the US$11.5 million gold heist from the Guyana-registered cargo ship almost two months ago.
It was revealed that the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment will now use the report for its own edification and to share with local police to plan the next move.
Curacao police spokesperson Reggie Huggins had told Stabroek News last week that a businessman was added to the list of those arrested in connection with the heist.
Searches of the home of this person unearthed a large quantity of cash and he is to remain locked up while the police carry out investigations to determine his role in the heist.
Six other persons implicated in the snatching of US$11.5 million worth of gold bars were recently told that they will have to spend an additional 60 days locked up until the investigation is completed on the island.
Huggins reiterated what he said from the beginning of the investigation which is that he did not know nor was he interested in the Guyanese crew as they were ruled out as suspects.
Stabroek News learnt that the police there would not release the names of the crew members, since they stated that the investigation was a sensitive one.
However, a crew member who gave his name as Raymond Emmanuel had reportedly told the Associated Press that the crew left Guyana on November 26, bound for Curacao. AP had also reported Public Relations Officer of the Public Prosecutor’s office in Curacao Norman Serphos reaffirming what Huggins had said, that they did not confiscate the boat and that if the crew wanted to leave they were free do to so.
From the inception, observers had pointed out that the crew members were pivotal to the investigation into the origin of the gold but the government here seemed disinterested in gaining access to them.
Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell had told Stabroek News that the boat, the Summer Bliss, was last in Guyana on June 19 last year.
