After government took up office in May it found evidence of rampant gold smuggling particularly to Brazil, Suriname and the United States and has made tackling it a priority, Raphael Trotman, Minister of Governance with responsibility for natural resources management said last evening.
“There was gold smuggling when we came into office and we found it was quite extensive. We decided to make it priority”, he told Stabroek News adding that the issue is of serious concern as every bit of ore or gold that leaves Guyana undeclared means less revenue for the country.
Trotman said that the Guyana Gold Board and to some extent his ministry are looking at the situation. He acknowledged that there are ongoing investigations regarding the smuggling of gold from Guyana.
“From what we are seeing gold is going over our borders with Brazil and Suriname and some amounts are going up to the US”, he said.
Trotman stressed that the most pertinent thing now is the extent of smuggling that is taking place. “It is rampant…”, he asserted.
Trotman added that he was not in a position to say whether the US visas held by some gold miners have been revoked as part of any investigation into a gold smuggling racket with origins here.
Asked what was the government’s response to this situation, he said there is collaboration with foreign jurisdictions and that the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) is also looking at the situation.
Meanwhile, US Charge d Affaires Bryan Hunt when asked about the smuggling of gold from Guyana to the United States said that he could not speak about a specific case but could speak generally.
He told reporters shortly after a meeting with Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo at Parliament, that the US works with CANU, SOCU and the Guyana Police Force on narcotics and money laundering across the board.
“I am not going to comment on the specifics of ongoing investigations but it would be fair to say that we are actively engaged with the government on all issues relating to international crime, and narcotics smuggling and money laundering.
Asked specifically about gold smuggling, he said “I think it is fair to say that we watch all avenues through which illegal proceeds could be smuggled into and out of Guyana and that would include the widest possible range including watching the precious metal industry”.
With regard to visa revocations, he said that under US laws anyone who has committed a felony would be ineligible for such a visa. “To the extent that we have individuals who have committed offences in the money laundering realm they too will be ineligible for US visas just like any other felon”, he said.
He steered clear of specifically saying whether visas have been revoked as part of a gold smuggling investigation. “I can’t go into specifics of these …what I can say is if we find evidence that someone has committed a crime…they would be ineligible and therefore their visas will be ineligible for travel to the United States”, he said.
The biggest confirmation of the extent of gold smuggling from Guyana occurred in 2012 when 476 pounds of gold which originated from Guyana was stolen from a Guyanese fishing boat which was in Curacao. The gold is said to be worth US$11.5 Million.
According to police reports, the robbers went to the port area in three different cars and guards let them inside the restricted area in the mistaken belief that they were customs officials.
News agency Amigoe had reported that six men, carrying guns and wearing masks and hoodies along with the police jackets stormed the ship. At gunpoint, they pushed the 51-year-old captain as well as the three Guyanese crewmen onto the ground.
The perpetrators apparently knew their way around the ship and walked directly to the three metal boxes with the gold bars which had a total weight of 476 pounds and they reportedly took only five minutes to remove them.
Then Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud had reiterated Government’s “zero tolerance” for gold smuggling. No one locally has been charged in connection with the gold and authorities here have said nothing about who the owner might be. The former government had been criticised for not taking the Curacao case more seriously. Sources here have said the smuggling of gold is being done by well-known players in the industry who have high connections.
The US has since taken a special interest in the Curacao case.
In 2011 the chairman of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission’s (GGMC) Board of Directors Major General (rtd) Joe Singh had expressed worry that some of the gold production is being smuggled out of the country.
Making reference to stories of people going into certain interior airstrips with money to purchase gold, he told a bi-monthly meeting of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association that “where that gold is going I have a suspicion because I understand that there’s a lucrative cross border movement of gold.”
The smuggling has coincided with a decline in gold declarations.
Gold declarations and earnings have been on a downward spiral since last year following a record high in 2013. In 2009, gold declarations were 305,178 ounces, while in 2010 declarations rose to 308,438 ounces. In 2011, gold declarations amounted to 363,083 ounces increasing to 438,645 ounces in 2012.
The following year, 2013, the gold industry achieved total declarations of 481,087 ounces representing the highest level of production in the history of the industry. However, in 2014, gold declarations dropped by almost 20% compared to the previous year, ending at 387,508 ounces.
As a result, last year, gold export receipts declined by 27.6 percent, to US$469.8 million, the result of a combination of a 20.1 percent contraction in export volume, to 385,683 ounces, and a 9.4 percent decline in average export prices, to US$1,218 per ounce.
