Charges to be slapped against two in 50-lb cocaine bust

Charges are expected against the two men, who were held following a 25-kilo cocaine bust in Berbice three days ago,  a senior Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) source told Stabroek News yesterday.

The source reported that the two suspects remained in custody and there is a possibility that more persons will be arrested. It would be unwise, the source stressed, to make too many details of the case public.

CANU, according to the source, is currently collaborating with counterparts in other countries to gather intelligence and to determine exactly where the drugs came from and its destination. It is believed that the cocaine’s final destination was Suriname.

The investigating team, the source further reported, has managed to gather bits of useful information and the operation to bust the persons at the top of the drug ring is continuing.

In a major drug bust last Friday, CANU officers seized over 50 pounds of cocaine in Corriverton, Berbice and arrested two persons. Details have been sketchy, but Stabroek News was reliably informed that some 25 kilogrammes of cocaine were found in a car outside a Skeldon hotel and the suspects nabbed.

Investigators, sources had reported, had the men under surveillance and moved in on them sometime on Friday night and found the drugs.

CANU, the source had told this newspaper, will continue to monitor the gateway to Suriname. It is believed that this is the gateway through which large quantities of drugs leave Guyana. In early January a Guyanese ex-policeman was held in a major drug bust in Suriname and was also held by police here several years ago in connection with an abandoned aircraft found at the Kwapau airstrip in Cuyuni-Mazaruni, sources had said. Surinamese Police had intercepted 28 kilos of cocaine, US$ 147,000, two handguns, two cars and a moped during raids on two separate locations that month and the ex-policeman, described as an entrepreneur, was among three Surinamese who were arrested.

Meanwhile, a senior police source in Berbice told Stabroek News yesterday that they had provided CANU with “security support” during the operation which led to the bust last Friday. Police, the source said, are committed to giving CANU whatever support it can during its operations.