A Colombian national who is wanted by the US for allegedly conspiring to launder drug trafficking proceeds was on Monday nabbed in Trinidad after arriving there from Guyana.
It was the latest case of the US collaborating with Port-of-Spain to capture persons – including Guyanese – accused of drug crimes.
According to a Trinidad Guardian report yesterday, the police there said 46-year-old Jorge Herman Zuluaga arrived via a Caribbean Airlines flight at around 11:45 am on Monday. Local narcotics officials were yesterday unavailable to comment on this case.
Zuluaga, according to that paper as well as the Trinidad Express was apprehended at the Piarco International Airport by officials and was moments after whisked to the Port-of-Spain Magistrate’s Court where he was read the charges by Magistrate Lucinda Cardenas- Ragoonanan and later denied bail.
Those reports also said that the Colombian is wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for conspiring to launder drug trafficking proceeds, money laundering and aiding and abetting.
The two newspapers said Head of the Central Authority in the Attorney General’s office, David West, who is representing the US government, told the court that he was objecting bail on the grounds that the man was a Colombian resident and had no ties to Trinidad and Tobago. West told the court that the offences were serious and that the accused had connections in the United Kingdom, Panama and Spain. He also revealed that undercover agents uncovered the illegal activities which allegedly included the laundering of over US$5M.
According to the Trinidad reports, in response to the charges, Zuluaga, through the court interpreter said he knew nothing of the charges and had only gone to Trinidad for holiday. Additionally he told the magistrate that he wanted to retain his own lawyer and interpreter and questioned what the conditions in the prisons were like. The magistrate in response said she was sure that the authorities would do everything to make him feel welcome and reminded the accused of his right to apply to the judge in chambers for bail. The matter comes up tomorrow.
In recent times, four Guyanese who were wanted by the US were apprehended in Trinidad by US officials.
These individuals were permanently in Guyana and despite the much talked about collaboration between local law enforcement and the DEA, they were never arrested here. Sources have said that the US does not trust local law enforcement authorities and is therefore using Trinidad as its staging ground to capture wanted men.
Embattled businessman Roger Khan who will soon be on trial in the US for conspiracy to import cocaine there was hiding out in Suriname when he was apprehended by the police and later nabbed by US agents in Trinidad, where he transited while ostensibly on his way back to Guyana. The same day he was held he was extradited to the US. Auto dealer Peter Morgan was also nabbed in the Twin Island Republic while on his way to Panama. He is also awaiting trial in the US for alleged involvement in the drug trade following an extradition hearing in Trinidad.
The same obtained for basketball coach Raffel Douglas who is also accused of involvement in the narco trade. He was also apprehended in Trinidad.
More recently, former PNCR Member of Parliament Abdul Kadir was held there on a charge of conspiring to blow up the John F Kennedy International Airport in the US. He along with overseas-based Guyanese Russell De Freitas, another Guyanese, Abdul Nur and Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim are jointly charged in this matter.
Kadir, back in July had transited Trinidad and was already on his way to Venezuela when the plane was ordered to turn back and he was arrested and the charges read to him in the Port of Spain Magistrate’s Court.
Speaking days after the Kadir incident the Guyana Police Force had said that as a matter of security it could not reveal when it was first privy to information about Kadir and Nur and all Acting Police Commissioner, Henry Greene had told the media was that the force was informed in good time.
“They requested information from us but again they don’t have to tell us what is the nature of the investigation; when you do investigations there is certain information you give out and some you hold, but we have no difficulty providing any country who wants help with information, once it is a law enforcement agency,” Greene had said. He had attributed this to the “the usual collaboration between the police force and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Following constant questioning by reporters Greene revealed that that it was only after the arrest of Kadir that the police force learnt of the matter.
Meanwhile, Greene said too that it was a normal thing for the FBI to do surveillance in Guyana since many US citizens work in Guyana and so if security was a matter of concern “then they have a right to look at their own security.”
