CANU officer testifies to searching properties in cocaine-in-timber case

Sherwayne De Abreu

A Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) agent yesterday testified to searching the properties of two of the drug trafficking accused, following the $550M cocaine bust at Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo in May last year.

This disclosure was made by a  senior CANU rank (who is not being named for security reasons) during the trial of Stephen Vieira, 33, Sherwayne De Abreu, 35, Tazim Gafoor, 45, and his son, Nazim Gafoor, 20, over the trafficking of $550 million in cocaine stashed in lumber.

The officer, in his evidence-in-chief, told the court that on May 12, the day of the drug bust, he, along with other CANU officers, travelled to Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo, where he saw the truck GSS 4748 parked, and witnessed the offloading of dressed greenheart lumber and the drilling of holes in said lumber by another officer. He related that that led to the eventual discovery of what was then suspected to be narcotics, in the wood.