A growing label as drug traffickers

Jul 04, 2009 Editorial

Guyana has long been described as one of the major drug transshipment points in the Caribbean, which in itself has developed a huge reputation as a haven for drug traffickers. But from the Guyana perspective not a week has gone by without some Guyanese or the other being implicated in drug shipment.
In the past we have had the misfortune of being the home of a large number of overseas-based Guyanese who were caught up in the drug trade. Many were working at the major airports in the United States, having gained employment because a Guyanese organisation had a big say in the employment practices.
This in itself is not surprising. Many immigrant groups stake out key areas having worked in them until they attained senior positions. For example, the Italians and more recently, the Guyanese could be found in the cleaning industry. They are also security guards.

So it is that they had secured a niche at the airports in those American cities, particularly New York, where the Guyanese population is significant. These Guyanese were wooed to help disburse cocaine shipped aboard aircraft and they did so effectively until they got caught. A large number of them went before the courts and an equally large number have been deported having served lengthy prison terms.
One would be inclined to believe that their overseas involvement is because they need to make more money than they could in normal employment since the cost of living is often beyond their earnings.
In Guyana, the word is that illegal drugs accounted for more than 50 per cent of the economy, something that the authorities have queried but something that foreign analysts are insisting on.
Even if one is to dispute the extent of drug trafficking in this country, events often come back to remind us that more ordinary people than we think are actively involved. Guyana admittedly is not the only country faced with the growing problem of drug trafficking.

Jamaica has long been described as the home of marijuana. The crop does not need all of the care and attention as most agricultural crops and the reward is far more satisfying than that from the regular agricultural crops. Jamaica has been exporting marijuana to just about everywhere for as long as one can remember.
Guyana’s marijuana stock grew out of the Jamaican industry. The link between the Jamaicans and the Guyanese has continued to this day. To many, Guyanese are firmly entrenched in the drug trade, and this does not augur well for the hard-working people who would want to take advantage of the free movement of skills within the CARICOM Single Market. Their predecessors, be they in Barbados, the smaller Caribbean islands, or in the United States have developed the reputation as drug dealers. It is therefore no surprise, but quite frustrating that so many of our well-meaning, honest citizens get a hassle as they try to enter these foreign ports.

Too many of our countrymen have been held with illegal drugs of varying quantities in their possession; caught trying to uplift large shipments that arrived among lumber, coconuts, and even prunes, a crop that does not grow in Guyana but which we have inexplicably sought to export to the United Kingdom.
We have shipped cocaine in molasses, in cabbage and even in artifacts. Some have actually carried the drugs on their person, either in their stomach or in their nether parts. We have been labeled. But the vast majority of us remain poor and the coming generation seems to be doing nothing to help us out of our poverty. Instead, they seem keen on getting us more firmly entrenched in the drug trade. Are we doomed to be drug exporters and couriers? Only the authorities could tell us whether there is a plan to effectively end our growing involvement in the drug trade.
We have attempted to secure our various ports of entry and exit; we have beefed-up inspection but these efforts seem to pale when one considers the quantity of drugs that still manages to slip through.
And it is a wonder that our drug addict population is not larger to add to our woes.