The new anti-drugs agreement that is being negotiated between Guyana and Venezuela will include assistance in taking necessary action to confiscate the assets of those convicted of involvement in the trade in illegal drugs or related offences, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee said yesterday.
Minister Rohee, in opening remarks at his ministry on the commencement of the negotiations, also noted that the agreement will ensure real-time cooperation and coordination between the respective law enforcement agencies of the two neighbouring countries.
Emphasising the importance of the cooperation pact, Rohee pointed out that a key component of any anti-narcotics strategy for Guyana must be cooperation and coordination with Guyana’s neighbours; especially since much of the drug activities associated with Guyana have their origins beyond the country’s boundaries.
Addressing an audience that included Venezuelan Ambassador Dario Morandy, he also disclosed that the negotiations on a new anti-narcotics cooperation agreement are occurring just when Guyana is “on the cusp” of developing a new National Drug Strategy Master Plan to run from 2011 to 2015. In this regard, Rohee referred to the previous 2005-2009 Plan and refuted the view that it only existed in writing. “I wish to assure every Guyanese that that is not the truth,” he said. Rohee disclosed that of the 36 programmes identified for implementation under that previous strategy, 17 have been concluded, while 16 are works in progress and three have not commenced implementation.
He acknowledged that the Plan had a timetable of five years but noted that a critical assumption of any strategic plan is the timely availability of resources. “Wherever resources could have been found, programmes and activities were implemented. The programmes that have not been implemented because of resource limitations, will be rolled over to the new plan being developed once those programmes, when reviewed, are determined to be still relevant,” Rohee assured.
Rohee also observed that it is as “an incontrovertible fact that the suppression of the drug problem cannot start and end within national jurisdictions and therefore require regional and international cooperative and coordinated action.” He pointed out that Guyana and Venezuela share a border that is 420 miles long, while they are connected by a vast body of water. “The monitoring of territory that size in an era of ever increasing technological advancement and acumen of the perpetrators of the trade in illegal drugs would be a challenge for a State that has an abundance of resources, much less two developing States with competing demands–not only in relation to crime and security, but development imperatives in their entirety,” he contended.
As a result, Rohee added that Presidents Bharrat Jagdeo and Hugo Chavez decided at their meeting in Caracas last July that efforts must be made to enhance and intensify cooperation and coordination between the law enforcement agencies of Guyana and Venezuela. Both had recognised the limitations of national efforts to combat the scourge of the drug trade, which gives rise to other forms of nefarious activities, like gunrunning, kidnappings, murder and wanton acts of criminality, Rohee said.
2010 drug
seizures
Meanwhile, in Guyana’s fight against the production and distribution, possession and trafficking of narcotics, the seizure of cocaine last year amounted to 71 kilogrammes, 825 grammes, Rohee announced yesterday.
He said 132 persons were arrested and charged for offences related to the possession/trafficking of the drug. In 2009, 74 kilogrammes, 905 grammes of cocaine were seized, and 120 persons were arrested and charged, he added.
Rohee disclosed that the seizure of cannabis amounted to 191,877 kilogrammes in 2010, and a total of 537 persons were arrested and charged for offences related to the possession/trafficking of cannabis. In 2009, he said, a total of 183,198 kilogrammes of cannabis were seized, while 465 persons were arrested and charged for related offences.
Also in 2010, eradication exercises were conducted on 61 cannabis fields in the country, totalling 97 acres, with cannabis plants weighing approximately 185,221 kilogrammes.
In 2009, eradication exercises were conducted on 119 cannabis fields across the country, totalling 160 acres and the plants weighed approximately 177,563 kilogrammes, Rohee revealed.
