Trio still in custody for cocaine in logs

Apr 05, 2011 News

Up to press time, three persons were still in police custody while investigators await further information from their Jamaican counterparts. The three were held over the weekend by Customs Anti Narcotics Unit, in connection with the cocaine seizure in Jamaica last month.
A total of 122.65 kilograms of cocaine was found in a container with a consignment of lumber that was destined for China.
The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) plans to press drug charges against the officials of the Kitty, Georgetown registered company. The shipper is said to have links with a well-know Chinese restaurant in the city.
Kaieteur News understands that the shipper and at least one of the employees were in possession of the shipping container’s seal and they had supervised the loading.
On March 16, ranks from the Jamaican drug authorities made the bust aboard the MV Mega Azurit that had departed Guyana on March 11.
Since then, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) have been tussling over who had responsibility for certain procedures. The GFC has already suggested that the container could have been switched from one vessel to another only with the assistance of customs or representatives of the shipping company.
That was the first major drug-bust on a ship that left a Guyanese wharf since CANU agents were removed from the berthing facilities and told to focus on the airports and Surinamese and Brazilian crossings.