Georgetown: The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) this year will see an increase in budgetary allocation so it may better tackle the drug trade.
That’s according to Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan, who made the disclosure on Monday at the opening of the Unit’s Annual Training Exercise at the National Racquet Centre on Woolford Avenue.
“More money will be needed for training assets, materials, vehicles and also for information gathering,” Minister Ramjattan said as he called on all law enforcement agencies to join forces so that together they can fight the drug scouge.
“I know that people think in compartments; some think it’s my turf and they don’t want to share information with another agency that is roughly doing the same things in another area. That is not going to work; we have to collaborate and share information to produce results,” Ramjattan said.
He told the over 90 ranks present at the function that they must do their part in developing the overall plan to achieve CANU’s aims and objectives.
PUBLIC TRUST
Advising law enforcement ranks that their biggest partner in the fight against drug trafficking is the public, Ramjattan said they need to work harder to ensure they gain their trust.
Underscoring that Guyana is in a geopolitical space where the crime rate is exceedingly high, Minister Ramjattan said:
“A lot of people don’t know that Brazil has 60,000 murders a year, along with thousands of murders in Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico City, Colombia.
“And a number of these countries are major producers of cocaine and marijuana; even in the Caribbean countries and even Guyana here.”
He said that with the high profit margin to be derived from the sale of marijuana, many persons are now turning to State lands to plant cannabis. This is especially so in light of the fact that there is a big demand for local stock on the Caribbean market.
“The boys are saying that there is a special flavour to Guyanese marijuana, and there’s a big demand in Barbados,” Minister Ramjattan revealed.
Noting that even law enforcement, members of the judiciary and politicians around the world are not averse to being caught up in the drug trade, Ramjattan said that thankfully, the situation in Guyana is not as bad as some other countries, because of the vigilance of CANU, the police narcotics unit and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
According to CANU Deputy Head, Lesley Ramlall, there’s no sign of the drug trade ever letting up anytime soon.
He said that on the contrary, the flow of narcotics across the globe is likely to be much higher in 2018 when compared to previous years, and this is so because of the two major hurricanes that hit the Caribbean last year, thereby preventing large shipments of narcotics from reaching the global market.
In June 2018, U.S. assessment revealed that coca cultivation in Colombia increased again in 2017 has renewed pressures from Washington on Bogotá to intensify coca crop eradication.
As a result, Ramlall said such production of the cocoa plant in Colombia has the potential to increase cocaine production tremendously.
“These factors combined with high demand for narcotics and high profit margin will certainly encourage suppliers to increase their production, for South America and the Caribbean, the prevalence of the narcotics trade continues to be a major concern to all of us,” the drug enforcement official said.
He explained that the Andean countries are the world’s leading producers of cocaine and the Caribbean corridor has been used to transport these substances to North America. As such this certainly warrants a high level of collaboration to be integrally involved in the fight against the narcotics trade.
Adding that Guyana continues to be referred to as a transshipment country for narcotics, the Deputy CANU Head said the country’s geographic location makes it a favorable transnational port for the narcotics trade.
“It is because of this reality that agencies such as CANU are so relevant in this fight, since its establishment in 1995 the agency continues to play a major role in the illicit drug trade,” he said.
During the first eight months of 2018, CANU seized 304 grammes of heroin, 250 grammes of ecstasy, 100 crystal methamphetamine, 534 kilogrammes of cannabis and 161Kilos cocaine.
The street value was estimated at $141M.
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