U.S., Guyana to up fight against narco-trafficking…as DEA Office set to be declared open tomorrow

Tomorrow, Wednesday, February 10, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Office in Guyana will be officially declared open. The Office is expected to work along with local agencies to continue tackling the scourge of drug trafficking in Guyana.

For a number of years Guyana has been pushing for the United States (US) to provide more assistance in the narcotics fight since in many cases North American countries, especially the U.S. seem to be the chosen destinations for the illegal substances passing through the country.

In an interview with a section of the media last week, U.S. Ambassador to Guyana Perry Holloway had stated that while he cannot talk about specific cases, his Government is monitoring local organisations believed to be engaged in narco-trafficking activities to the United States.

“There are narco-trafficking organisations in Guyana that ship drugs to the United States and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and others, of course, are looking at those – that’s what they do and they will do even a better job once they (DEA agents) get here,” he said.

Ambassador Holloway had pointed out that the US is concerned about the “fair” number of drug seizures happening locally, particularly since most of them are destined for the North American country. However, he explained that there is some positive on the flip side of this situation as it shows that persons are being intercepted.

According to the U.S. Ambassador, this was the driving force behind the establishment of a DEA office in Guyana. He said DEA agents would previously come to Guyana at the behest of the Government to assist with investigations into major drug trafficking by providing technical assistance, intelligence and other data to help their local counterparts carry out interceptions.

He noted too that it was against this background and with approval from the previous Administration, and now with support of the current Government, that the U.S. is establishing a local office which will see the presence of DEA agents on a fulltime basis.