Suspects have been identified in the 40-pound cocaine bust but no arrests have been made as investigations continue, Head of the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) James Singh told Stabroek News on Friday.
Singh refused to divulge further details stating that the investigation is ongoing and that it was a joint one between his unit and the Guyana Police Force.
Pressed further as to whether camera footage on the day the cocaine slipped through the Cheddi Jagan International Airport was reviewed, Singh said there was camera footage but again declined to further comment.
“I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation,” Singh told Stabroek News.
It was camera footage that was instrumental in assisting investigators in the infamous ‘pink suitcase’ drug bust back in January. One of the four local accused in that 50-pound cocaine bust was allegedly seen on camera instructing his junior rank not to search the suitcase.
On June 2, a woman, Chandinee Segobind, checked in a suitcase filled with cocaine packed in Kerry Gold milk packets, which was not detected by Timehri airport security, the police or CANU. The suitcase filled with cocaine left the airport on a Delta flight and was intercepted at the John F Kennedy Airport in New York.
When he was asked about the drug initially, Singh had said that he was indeed concerned about the recent bust following closely on the January ‘pink suitcase’ bust of 50 pounds of cocaine. However, he had pointed out that the police and CANU officers were involved in a “holistic investigation” looking at all angles, since something was seriously wrong.
He pointed out that persons had been charged in the ‘pink suitcase’ bust, but this one still occurred and therefore there is need to look at whether it is just the human factor that is involved.
“We are working together to look at this and I cannot reveal all the facts but just to say that an investigation has been launched,” he had commented, and added, “we are looking at all the systems to see what went wrong.”
The CANU head had stressed that it is not that CANU and the police have not been having successes in the drug fight at the airport and had referred to the recent arrest of an American man at the airport by CANU who was sentenced to four years in prison.
On January 12, 50 pounds of cocaine were discovered in the US packed in a pink suitcase. Dorothy Sears had checked-in the suitcase at the airport but she was arrested in New York on arrival there. Sears had admitted that she had checked-in the pink suitcase and stated that she had been instructed by an individual in Guyana not to pick up the bag.
Four persons, Maurice Smith, a police dog handler; Roderick Peterkin, an employee with Roraima Airways; along with CANU employees Muniram Persaud and Shemika Tennant, were charged with conspiracy on March 11 in relation to the case.
Three of the accused, Smith, Peterkin and Tennant have since accused Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack of malicious prosecution and have moved to the High Court to challenge the charges laid against them.
New dogs?
The two embarrassing drug busts on foreign soil have seen the authorities being pushed into action as they attempt to address the issue of drugs leaving the airport even though security personnel are always on duty and the airport is equipped with a working scanner.
One of the first actions taken by the authorities was to conduct routine tests of the two sniffer dogs that have been on duty at the airport for a number of years.
The dogs, who had only pointed their handlers to someone who was transporting cocaine once in the years and because the woman had sniffed cocaine and had not washed her hands, failed the routine tests.
According to reports, the two dogs, Argon and Lacy, were involved in an exercise in the compound of the Ministry of Home Affairs and they failed to detect cocaine that was planted in the compound. This newspaper was told that Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, top police personnel and officers from CANU were present during the exercise.
Sources had pointed out that the failure of the dogs to detect the cocaine means they may no longer be useful to the force and would have to be replaced.
Stabroek News has been unable to contact Police Commissioner Henry Greene or his Crime Chief Seelall Persaud on the issue as they were both unavailable for a number of days.
However, when contacted and asked whether the police force may be moving in the direction of acquiring new sniffer dogs, Minister Rohee said he has had no “engagements” with anyone from the force and as such could not have answered the question.
On Wednesday last stakeholders involved in the administration of security at the airport were involved in a workshop and according to the CEO of the airport Ramesh Ghir the one-day affair was to allow them, “to sit down and relook at what we have been doing, what we have implemented in the past few months and see how best we can improve this system.”
Many attempts to contact Ghir, who had organized the workshop, on what would have been the outcome of the workshop proved to be futile even though he had promised to speak to this newspaper.
Asked about the workshop, Singh told Stabroek News that the workshop was for the participants to “stratigise and have a holistic view” of the operation of the airport. He said it was an opportunity for the key players to meet and they are going to meet on a “continuous” basis.
