Customs officers held in blackmail plot

Oct 25, 2010 News

– several others facing dismissal

Police have detained three Customs Officers for allegedly trying to blackmail a top Guyana Revenue Authority official who had implicated them in a massive cigarette smuggling racket.
Kaieteur News understands that the GRA employees have been in custody since Friday and are being grilled at CID headquarters, Eve Leary.
Reliable sources disclosed that the GRA staffers are among a number of ranks who were implicated in a recent plot by smugglers to ship containers of counterfeit cigarettes to Suriname.
Last August, authorities in Suriname had intercepted a container of the bogus cigarettes and shipped them back to Guyana.
According to reports, three of the GRA employees received information that they were to be given their dismissal letters shortly.
It is alleged that one of the staffers facing dismissal video-taped and also made an audio recording of a very senior GRA official.
The employee reportedly then attempted to use the recorded information to force the official to reverse the decision to fire him and his colleagues.
Instead, the GRA official contacted a senior political official and was directed to have the alleged extortionist dismissed immediately. The matter was also reported to the police and the staffer and his two other colleagues were detained.
Meanwhile, Kaieteur News understands that two other GRA staffers have already been fired, as a result of the counterfeit cigarettes scam, while several others are to receive their dismissal letters soon.
It is alleged that in August, a 20-foot container came into the country recently as cargo but for some reason was recorded as “in-transit”.
It reportedly contained several bales of counterfeit State Express 555 cigarettes.
The container was released and taken to Moleson Creek where it was somehow allowed to enter the Suriname/Guyana ferry.
But Suriname authorities at South Drain reportedly found that the driver transporting the container had no insurance documents and turned the container back.
It was in the Berbice region when BASS members are reported to have held onto it and detained the driver.