Cops, CANU agents undergo DEA training for airport interdiction

(From second left) Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, and US Ambassador Brent Hardt sit in front of the 21 graduates of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) airport interdiction course.

Twenty-one law enforcement officers last Friday graduated from a United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) airport interdiction course at the Guyana Police Force Training Centre.

The course was funded under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), which was launched by US President Barack Obama at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009 and seeks to combat transnational crimes within the region.

Speaking at the ceremony, US Ambassador Brent Hardt told law enforcement officers that the illicit trafficking of drugs, arms and people not only threatens public safety but dwindles economic progress, and he asserted that the completion of the course represented a step toward