The cocaine was seized upon its arrival at the Port of Antwerp. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. November 9, 2020. Officers walked by a truck they suspected to be part of a huge heroin ring and sawin plain sighta brick of heroin just hanging out of an open box. This is considered the highest seizure of drugs when compared to the previous year which amounted to 536 kg (1, 181) pounds. The bust occurredat thePacker Avenue Marine Terminal Porton the Delaware River in South Philadelphia. The reports stated that three police officers, a port manager, and a lawyer were among some 20 other criminals arrested as part of an operation targeting the well-structured criminal organisation suspected of orchestrating large and regular drug shipments from South America to Belgium. Guyana sees a high quantity of containers carrying metal fragments leave its ports each year. WebThe shipment which was described as the largest overseas drug bust ever, worldwide, was seized upon its arrival at the Port of Antwerp. WebOn November 17th, 1992 Canada's made its largest narcotics drug bust to date. Durasevic and Ilic worked on board the MSC Gayane, a commercial shipping vessel, as crew members; Durasevic was the second officer and Ilic was the engineer cadet. One CANU official confirmed that two persons, including the shipper of the container that was found with the cocaine, are in custody. The cocaine that was found in a container with scrap metal at the Belgian port of Antwerp carried a weight of 11.5 tons, according to Belgian Law Enforcement. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia newsletters. var gcse = document.createElement('script'); Cocaine use and overdose deaths are on the rise in America after years of decline as production has surged to record levels in Colombia, the source of about 90pc of the US supply. There have been questions about the operation of the container scanners at the city wharves that are operated by the Customs Department of the GRA. gcse.type = 'text/javascript'; Authorities have seized 15,000kg of cocaine from a ship in Philadelphia in what was described as one of the largest drug busts in American history - worth an estimated $1bn (891m). We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. The statistics show a downward trend from the year 2020 to 2022.. He added that robust counter-narcotics measures taken by nearby nations had resulted in a balloon effect, pushing traffickers to establish new routes in Guyana. Get fresh updates on organized crime from across the region delivered to your inbox. The latest drug bust overseas in containers from Guyana is once again raising questions about the inspection of containers before they leave Guyana. Only one active session is allowed per subscriber. A major drug bust on a container ship that has been described as the largest ever overseas drug bust in the world, has been traced to Guyana. The drug may alsotransit land borders and the river network shared by Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname before it reaches Guyana. The Guyana Chronicle reported that two of the suspects in custody were customs officers on duty as the load was scanned before it left for Belgium. Records show the MSC Gayane previously stopped in the Bahamas on June 13, Panama on June 9 and May 24, and Colombia on May 19. Amount Seized: 261 tons of hashishValue: $400 million. Website Solution/Maintenance by, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Worlds only known white giraffe fitted with tracker to deter poachers, Govt calls for recommendations on AML/CFT, Compliance Commission bills before tabling, President Ali calls for a united labour movement to further advance workers rights, Essequibo River will to be a massive hub for tourism Ali, Govt taking scientific approach to crime-fighting AG, Let us forge a new era of relations President Ali to labour movement, Guyana participating in 2023 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, Over 7,000 labour inspections conducted to date Min. Maxwell Barna is a contributor for Supercompressor and definitely didn't start googling Mexican Drug Lords' Twitter handles after filing this story. In November of last year law enforcement officials in Belgium announced that they were probing the discovery of 11.5 tonnes of cocaine in a container of scrap metal shipped from Guyana. He, however, said he is not at liberty to release further information. This latest bust of cocaine in containers from Guyana, follows two other drug busts internationally that were also linked to containers that were shipped from Guyana. Singh added that with the disappearance of images of the scanned container, the work of the drug enforcement unit gets even tougher. The nations porous borders with major drug trafficking nations -- including Venezuela and Brazil -- make it an ideal jumping-off point for smugglers moving cocaine to the United States, Canada, Europe, West African transit nations and the Caribbean. More so, he stated that little information was gathered from them during interrogation. Belgian Prosecutors are also linking the bust to a former Belgian Police Chief who was the head of a recently disbanded drug gang in the European country. He offered no additional details on the local probe. Please support our mission investigating organized crime. With regard to the Forces eradication efforts Blanhum said, Sixty-one and half acres of Cannabis was destroyed for the year 2022. The dismantlement of the drug gang in late September led to the arrest and indictment of 22 people, with three people still in the Netherlands awaiting extradition. On this note, he stated that CANU will continue to work along with their counterparts in Belgium to bring closure to the case and hopefully the big fishes can be caught and prosecuted. Belgian prosecutors, on Wednesday, dealt a new blow to a recently-disbanded drug gang led by a former Belgian police chief, after announcing the largest-ever overseas drug bust in the world.. Region 4 Round 2 matchups to conclude tomorrow as the Speakers Regional Youth Debating Competition 2023 continues. The other five crewmen previously sentenced and serving time in prison are Bosko Markovic, 39, of Montenegro, the ships chief officer; Vladimir Penda, 27, of Montenegro, the fourth engineer; Stefan Bojevic, 29, of Serbia, the assistant reeferman; Fonofaavae Tiasaga, 29, of Samoa, an able seaman; and Laauli Pulu, 34, of Samoa, an ordinary seaman. The Local agency and its Belgian counterpart are working closely on the matter. Meanwhile, back in August, customs officials in the port of Hamburg, Germany, made one of the ports largest drug busts. The CANU head said other details on the local probe cannot be provided at this time. (DOMINICK REUTER/AFP via Getty Images), Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. The truck also contained 64 pounds (29 kilograms) of heroin, 29 pounds (13.1 kilograms) of fentanyl powder and almost 37 pounds (16.7 kilograms) of fentanyl pills, the agency said. Guyana has also been directly linked to recent record drug busts in Europe, reflecting how traffickers have used the nation to feed increased transatlantic cocaine flows stoked by booming South American cocaine production. Corruption, Containers, Cocaine: Guyana's Role In Transnational Drug Trafficking. You must be logged in to post a comment In August last year, law enforcement in Germany found 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in a shipment of rice from Guyana. Narcotics Police in Jamaica are probing the discovery of scores of packages with more than 300 pounds of cocaine which were found in containers that arrived in the island from Guyana. 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In May of 2014, federal agents seized over 50 pounds of heroin after busting a transport vehicle en route from the Bronx, New York to Hartford, Connecticut. alarmed over large cocaine shipment from Guyana -says Home Affairs Minister, Man who travelled from Guyana busted with 44 cocaine pellets in stomach at Jamaica Airport, Jamaica busts over 100 pounds of cocaine in rice container from Guyana, Recently released cocaine convict held for 22 lbs cocaine bust at CJIA, Unclear whether container linked to cocaine bust in Germany was scanned before leaving Guyana. The Gayane was scheduled to sail on to Europe, but U.S. Customs officers detained the crew and ship in Philadelphia after making the bust June 18, 2019. A few weeks ago, there was a drug bust in a container of rice from Guyana in Germany. They were destined for Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa, Lebanon, India and Haiti, officials said. In a clear-cut case of How Not to Ever, Ever Smuggle Drugs From Mexico into the U.S., federal agents in California seized 15 tons of marijuana at the the U.S.-Mexico border, completely unhidden in the back of a tractor trailer. Commander Domenico Napolitano, head of the financial police for the city of We go into the field to interview, report and investigate. The report added that drug traffickers exploit the countrys poorly monitored ports, remote airstrips, intricate river networks, porous land borders, as well as a permissive environment created as a result of corruption.". (Advertising Department) The United Nations drug agency says cocaine production increased by a third between 2020 and 2021, which was a record high and the biggest year-to-year increase since 2016. The next morning, the Santa Barbara Sheriffs Office announced the 34 arrests and the seizure of 3,164 pounds of methamphetamine the biggest drug bust in the countys history, and one of the largest ever in the nation. WebKaieteur News An operation conducted over a two-week period by the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) agents along with Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard (GDFCG) James Singh, the head of Guyana's Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), told InSight Crime the nation is caught in the crosshairs of drug trafficking networks operating betweensupply anddemand countries. In early 2014,US and Italian authorities dismantled a billion-dollar drug smuggling operation involving members of New Yorks notorious Gambino Mafia family and southern Italys Ndrangheta. Guyana and World News and news from the Guyanese Diaspora. Cocaine Cowboy (1989) Amount Seized: 21.4 tons of cocaine Value: $6.9 billion (roughly $13 billion today) WebThe Brussel Times Belgian prosecutors have dealt a new blow to a recently disbanded drug gang led by a former Belgian police chief after announcing the largest-ever Murica! This month the DEA made the biggest meth bust in American history: 2200 pounds of meth, nearly 900 pounds of cocaine, and 13 pounds of heroin. However, the record-breaking shipment was expected by law enforcement officials as it is suspected it left the port of Guyana after the drug gangs arrest in Belgium, with drug gangs unable to intercept it once at sea. The Jamaica Observer reports that while searching the containers, Narcotics Police accompanied by members of the Jamaica Customs Contraband Enforcement Team reportedly found a total of 122 packages stashed in the containers. Web17 April, 2023. An eighth crewmen charged, Aleksandar Kavaja, 27, of Montenegro, the ship electrician, previously pleaded guilty but has yet to be sentenced. Guyanese officials have benefited from extra training provided by the US-funded Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, aiming to help authorities in Guyana intercept cocaine flooding into the nation, particularly from Colombia. It was reported that counter-narcotics prosecutors tracked the transatlantic journey of 11.5 tonnes of cocaine from Guyana, on the northeastern coast of South A wanted bulletin was issued for a local suspect who is still to be arrested. According to CANU, it was confirmed that all 12 of the said containers were scanned locally by operatives of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and no narcotic was detected nor were their seals appeared to have been tampered with. gcse.src = 'https://cse.google.com/cse.js?cx=' + cx; Australia is a pretty wild place. However, CANU subsequently stated that the cocaine found in Germany was more than likely loaded in Dominica and not Guyana. According to the report, prosecutors were able to track the shipment following the dismantlement of a drug trafficking gang led by a former Belgian counter-narcotics chief, which revealed the existence of tight-knit links between criminal gangs and counter-narcotics and law enforcement officials. Singh, the head of the anti-narcotics unit in Guyana, said authorities intend to adopt a multi-agency approach to help fight such corruption. The cocaine which had an estimated street value of around 300 million (US$353 million) was hidden between sacks of rice in the container, the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper said. However, the hunt continues for wanted shipper, Marlon Primo of Lot 701 Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara (ECD), and of 69 Atlantic Village, ECD. How did they find it so deep inside of Colombias dangerous jungles? Law enforcement sources told NBC10 in 2019 that the cocaine was not meant for Philadelphia, but instead for the Netherlands and France. WebInvestigators said the bust is the largest drug haul in the world in terms of both value and quantity. This is the third international drug bust in recent times linked to Guyana. 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The dismantlement of the drug gang late in September led to the arrest and indictment of 22 people, with three people still in the Netherlands awaiting extradition. Guyanese Online. You can also post comments, and manage your email subscription. This major drug bust comes on the heels of one in August in Hamburg, Germany, where authorities discovered 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in a container of rice shipments. gcse.src = 'https://cse.google.com/cse.js?cx=' + cx; The cocaine that was found in a According to a Deutsche Welle report, the seizure was made after investigators at the Joint Customs and Police Investigation Group (JIT) received a tip-off about drug smuggling. We have established and reported that the images of the scanned container were deleted which meant that staff members were involved it is now up to the Guyana Revenue Authority to launch an internal probe to determine what went wrong, Singh noted in a telephone interview on Tuesday. A record meth bust part of a national operation was announced Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. var gcse = document.createElement('script'); You know those double-decker buses in London? Mr. Singh said the information sharing between the law enforcement authorities in Jamaica and Guyana has been flowing. Hidden inside seven shipping containers was 15,000kg of the illicit drug, one of the largest caches ever intercepted on US shores and a quantity that's almost "beyond comprehension", according to Patrick Trainor, a spokesman for the US Drug Enforcement Agency in Philadelphia. The extradition may signal that prosecutors are concerned about Guyanese smuggling operations. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! As investigations continue into the US$1.06 billion drug bust in Belgium earlier this month, Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), James Singh has revealed that Guyana was used as a transshipment point. When compared to previous years, this represents the largest quantity of cannabis seized within the last five years. Guyanas Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework will be undergoing its fourth round of mutual evaluation in September 2023 by As Guyana joins the rest of the world in observing Labour Day, President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, in his Labour Day Message, said there A tourism masterplan for the Essequibo River, which features several tourism stops that have attracted domestic and international interest, is being completed. This was the largest drug bust in the 230-year history of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol arm of the Department of Homeland Security. Durasevic was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, and Ilic was sentenced to seven years in prison. In 2012,the United States provided Guyana with $500,000 under the security initiative. Aevin Dugas first achieved the record title for largest afro in 2010. On November 5, Belgiums Federal Police announced in a tweet that some 11.5 tons of cocaine in a scrap metal shipment had been seized at the Port of Antwerp. The catch is the largest overseas drug bust ever, worldwide, federal prosecutors told Belgian media, estimating the street value of the drug load at 900 million. SEE ALSO: US, Italy Arrests Show Cocaine Trade's Evolution. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Federal authorities raided the ship later that day. Connecticut Police have apprehended a St. Johnsbury drug and shooting suspect on a murder charge after being released in Caledonia Superior Court in 2021. The massive 261-ton stockpile would have netted roughly $400 million worth of profits, $14 million of which would have gone directly to the Taliban. GUYANA: Short Story:- When I was in the Diamond business in Guyana - By Royden V Chan. Prosecutors in our Office have been working non-stop to pursue justice since the MSC Gayane docked in the port of Philadelphia over two years ago, and we will not stop until the case is closed.. WebLast but not least is arguably the world's biggest drug bust ever: the raid at Port of Philadelphia's Packer Marine Terminal. Just months earlier, in Hamburg, Germany, authorities discovered1.5 tons of cocaine hidden between sacks of rice in a container that had arrived at the citys port from Guyana at the end of June. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Contacted by Stabroek News today, Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) James Singh said the unit is aware of the bust and that they have launched an investigation. And on August 22 last year authorities in Hamburg, Germany announced that they were probing the discovery of 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in a container of rice from Guyana. 55 woman says still being threatened by attacker. It was like Disney Land, but for coke heads. In fact, the containers were in-transit elsewhere. The cocaine was found in a container of rice that was destined for Haiti and a container of logs that was heading to China. Guyanas strategic locationand corruption at its ports underpin the nations ongoing role as a crucial transit hub for cocaine headed across the Atlantic and beyond. On November 4, it was reported that Belgian authorities had intercepted a vessel that allegedly left Guyana with a whooping 11.5 tonnes of cocaine the largest drug bust ever. 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In the late 1980s, UPI reported Guyana was an integral part of South Americas new drug smuggling route, as criminal groups sent increased loads of marijuana and cocaine across the Atlantic past outnumbered Guyanese authorities. It carried an estimated street value of 900 million Euros. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article. No one has been arrested in connection with the seizure. Three police officers, a port manager and a lawyer were among some 20 arrested as part of the operation targeting the well-structured criminal organisation suspected of orchestrating large and regular drug shipments from South America to Belgium. The container, from Germany, housed 1,917 kilograms of MDMA and 849 kilograms of crystal meth. The drugs had been shipped to the citys port from Guyana and were ultimately destined for the Netherlands. WebThe Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) said that the discovery of millions of U.S. dollars worth of cocaine which was discovered on Tuesday on a shipment which was seized In observance of todays Labour Day celebration, President Dr Irfaan Ali said that this day reminds of the legacy of workers which can only Guyana is participating in the 2023 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. The massive load of cocaine left a port in Guyana late October and Belgian prosecutors were able to track it, following the dismantlement of a drug trafficking gang led by a former Belgian counter-narcotics chief, which revealed the existence of tight-knit links between criminal gangs and counter-narcotics and law-enforcement officials. All our printed editions are available online, Dog lovers, pets get together for a fun day in the sun, Assuria opens $1B state-of-the-art head office, EU team to soon begin work to develop Guyana into regional pharmaceutical manufacturing hub. All rights reserved. A spokesperson for the Customs Investigations Office said the cocaine seizure was one of the largest in Hamburgs history, and the Hamburger Abendblatt reportedthe load had an estimated street value of around 300 million ($353 million). DEA agents, along with officers from San Diegos Tunnel Task Force (which is an actual thing) uncovered the tunnel, which came complete with hydraulic steel doors, elevators, a wooden staircase, and a butler at either entrance. On this note, Singh told this publication that the members of staff of the Revenue Body who were detained had to be released since the 72-hour detention period had expired. WebNovember 6, 2020 Law enforcement officials in Belgium are probing the discovery of 11.5 tons of cocaine, which was unearthed in a container of scrap metal from Guyana and But now their nephew is back and says he is taking over. Authorities in Guyana have been informed of the drug seizure and Head of the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit, James Singh informed News Source this afternoon that a full local investigation is underway. var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; Durasevic said he was paid $50,000 for his role in the conspiracy, according to court records. The record-breaking shipment was expected by law enforcement officials as they suspected it left the port of Guyana after members of the drug gangs arrest in Belgium, with drug gangs unable to intercept it once at sea, De Standaard reports. Prosecutors allege Nebblett recruited couriers in Guyana to take commercial flights to the United States with baggage containing "cocaine ladened shoes. The discovery was made at the Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL) on Monday afternoon. The force, according to this years statistics, seized more than 1000 pounds of drugs from various stop and searches, ports of entry and even the landing of suspicious aircrafts in the interior. We then verify, write and edit, providing the tools to generate real impact. The cartel responsible for all of it, undoubtedly taking a page out of the Spanish subtitled version of The Shawshank Redemption, dug an 1,800-foot underground tunnel from a building in Tijuana, Mexico, to a similar building in San Diego, California. By placing satellite tracking devices on tanks of ether purchased by an Escobar associate and tracking them back to the facility (obviously!). The Coast Guard boarded the ship and, in what sounds like the most boring drug seizure of all time, happened upon the drugs.
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