Local authorities will be closely following the trial of Heeralall Sukdeo, the Guyanese charged in the United States with attempting to smuggle 268 kilos of cocaine using a shrimp shipment, to determine if any charges will be laid here, according to head of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) James Singh.
Singh yesterday said CANU and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) are continuing their investigation of the US$12 million ($2.4 billion) shipment, which originated here and was not detected at the port of exit by enforcement officers.
However, without cooperation from Sukdeo, who is due to go on trial shortly, he noted that pertinent information will not be gathered as it relates to others who may have conspired with him in the shipment.
Singh said the US authorities have shared some documents with their Guyanese counterparts and these are now being reviewed but the trial is key as information revealed could result in persons in Guyana being charged.
According to a complaint unsealed last month in Brooklyn Federal Court, agents secretly removed the cocaine-filled shipment and tailed the container after it cleared customs on June 15th. The container was delivered to an unidentified warehouse in Brooklyn, where agents spotted Sukdeo “together with others … organizing and supervising the unloading” of the shipment.
Sukdeo, a Lusignan businessman, has since said he was innocent of any wrongdoing. “Sukdeo stated that he was present only in the vicinity of the truck containing the target shipment because he was curious about its contents,” US Homeland Security Special Agent Ryan Varrone stated in the complaint.
Sukdeo, 59, who is the owner of Sukdeo Sons Fishing, a shipping company based in Queens, New York, also has a branch of his company at Lusignan. His local address is Courbane Park, Annandale, East Coast Demerara.
Following Sukdeo’s arrest, the shipper of the shrimp Imrain Khan turned himself over to local authorities but was later released.
“While the desire is to charge someone here, we are relying on Sukdeo; he would be best the person to provide information. He has to say he approached the shipper, he knows where the drugs came from, it is all left up to him,” Singh said yesterday.
“If that person decides to give up information then we can charge but if he decides to take the rap there is nothing we can do” Singh emphasised.
In a statement after the US bust, the GRA said the discovery again brought to light the level of ingenuity by drug smugglers in utilising concealment methods that at times would require sophisticated detection techniques.
“It has also highlighted the pervasiveness of the narcotics trade and the need for law enforcement officials, particularly the (GRA’s) Customs and Trade Administration to fortify its efforts to monitor incoming and outbound cargo at the wharves, transit sheds and other ports of entry,” it added.
Security experts say the discovery in the US is a further embarrassment for Guyana and exposes the porosity of the various layers of the anti-narcotics fight, which has recently been beefed up with assistance from the US Drug Enforcement Administra-tion.
