Director of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) Professor Clive Thomas has said that unless the police force files court action against those involved in the smuggling of 476 pounds of gold to Curaçao, the gold will remain in the possession of the island’s government.
“As far as we know, making a claim over the gold and being successful in that claim depends on local action by the …police authorities here,” Thomas told Stabroek News in an interview last Thursday.
In March this year, it was disclosed that the information provided to authorities here is that the gold was lodged in one of the government agencies in Curaçao.
Thomas assured that in keeping with the agency’s efforts to have the gold returned to Guyana, SARA has written to the Guyana Police Force to ascertain how far the investigation has gone. He did not disclose any further information.
He insisted, however, that the authorities in Curaçao are not inclined to release the gold at this point.
“It can’t be a letter or a correspondence. Some court action has to be [in] process. Some police investigation…,” he added.
In 2012, 476 pounds of gold, believed to have originated from Guyana, were stolen from Guyanese fishing boat “Summer Bliss,” which was docked on the Dutch Caribbean Island.
Based on the information this newspaper received then, the vessel was on its way to Miami but made a stop in Curaçao. The gold was valued at approximately US$11.5 million.
News agency Amigoe had reported that six men, armed with guns and wearing masks and hoodies along with police jackets, stormed the boat. At gunpoint, they pushed the 51-year-old captain as well as the three Guyanese crewmen onto the ground. The robbers knew their way around the vessel as they walked directly to the three metal boxes with the gold bars and spent only five minutes removing them.
It was suspected that the gold was smuggled in batches from Guyana to Suriname over a period of time, after which it was melted into gold bars, loaded into the Summer Bliss and transported to the neighbouring country.
Authorities here have never publicly identified the owner of the gold or indicated whether anyone had been questioned in relation to the matter.
SARA’s Deputy Director Aubrey Heath-Retemyer had said that after receiving the information about the apparent retrieval of the gold, SARA made contact with the Natural Resources, Foreign Affairs, and Public Security ministries, and Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
“We are trying to piece together the relevant information from these agencies that would allow us to advance this case to the authorities in Curaçao. We believe that we have a right to do this because if the gold was smuggled out of Guyana, then we can lay claim…,” he had said.
After taking office in 2015, the APNU+AFC administration had repeatedly contended that large amounts of gold, were being smuggled out of the country. However, there has been little evidence of success in intercepting these illicit shipments.
