Authorities in The Netherlands on Thursday last discovered over 1100lbs of cocaine in a rum shipment that departed Guyana.
Following the discovery there, Guyana’s Custom Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) was contacted and an investigation was immediately launched.
When contacted for a comment on this latest development, Head of the Unit, James Singh explained that the container left Guyana drug-free.
“The container was scanned and checked before it left Guyana and we have verified that there was nothing but the product which was rum from one of the local distilling companies inside the container,” he posited.
Singh added that after scanning the container, it was under security at the port facility for a few days before it was shipped.
“This is clearly a case of a rip on-rip off operation… a reputable company exporting rum is now being seen as a drug carrier but this shows that things to happen when vessels stop at various ports before they reached their destinations,” Singh noted.
“We have scanned images as evidence that the container only had rum in it before it was sealed and placed in the port for shipment… we have to look at various angles… one will be the quality of cocaine and if there were any distinctive marks on the packaging… then we have to look to see whether the seals were tampered with…” he added.
“Not because the shipment left Guyana, means that the cocaine left Guyana… we cannot continue to look at ourselves in the negative when we know for a fact the container left Guyana drug-free… the Netherlands authorities have to conduct its investigation and determine at which port the cocaine was loaded,” the CANU Boss contended.
