A member of the Guyana Police Force surrendered to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Sunday, hours after he evaded ranks of the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) during a chase along the East Bank Demerara Public Road.
Contacted yesterday, CANU head Major General (Ret’d) Michael Atherly told Stabroek News that with the help of the police, CANU ranks were able to locate the car involved and the driver had been detained.
Acting on information received, CANU ranks during the wee hours of Sunday morning chased a car, suspected to have contained narcotics, along the East Bank Public road.
Ranks on duty on the western end of the Demerara Harbour Bridge were informed to close the gate to avoid the vehicle from entering.
However, the driver, who is said to be the police officer presently in custody, crashed into the gate and escaped the lawmen.
“We were tracking a vehicle suspected of having narcotics aboard and it was cornered at the Demerara Harbour Bridge and it bypassed the usual counters that you pay at and went around the barriers there where the trucks would normally go…. They went around that, they went over the bridge, we were able to inform the police at the bridge at the other end, they locked the gate to prevent him passing out. When he got there, he crashed through the gate and went his way, damaged his vehicle badly,” Atherly explained.
Meanwhile, Comman-der of ‘D’ Division (ag) Linden Lord told Stabroek News that acting on intelligence received, the police went to a body repair shop at Best Village, West Coast Demerara, where they located the damaged car.
“The body work man say this man (police) bring this car and left it here and tell him to do repairs and he gonna return to pay him and so on. And then we were later told that he was in custody, he turned himself in,” Lord explained.
No narcotics were recovered. “We had good information that there was narcotics involved in this matter but by the time we were able to recover the vehicle and so on, he had gotten rid of it,” Atherly noted.
He said, it is suspected that the policeman was the lone occupant of the vehicle at the time of the chase.
The police are assisting CANU with the investigation.
