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.
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.
