Jamaicans bust another ship with cocaine from Guyana

Jun 03, 2011 News

The latest seizure comes just over two months after Jamaican Customs unearthed 123 kilos of cocaine at Port Bustamante in Kingston, during a routine examination of a trans-shipment vessel, MV Vega Azurit (in above photo) from Guyana.

– Five in custody, 13 kilos seized

(JamaicaObserver) – Another cocaine shipment which investigators say came from Guyana has been seized by Jamaican authorities.
Five persons are now in custody following the seizure of 13 kilograms of cocaine worth approximately J$32million (US$378,000/Guy$77million) on a ship in Kingston Wednesday.
According to a Jamaica Customs Department official, the five were detained at the wharves after the contraband was discovered shortly after 06:00hrs on a vessel en route to the United States from Guyana.
“It was about 13 parcels of cocaine,” the Customs official told the Observer. The packages, said the spokesman, were sent to the Transnational Crimes and Narcotics Division where detectives were questioning the five suspects.
Wednesday’s seizure follows the recent arrest of a Jamaican cruise ship employee, who police alleged was involved in the smuggling of more than 50 pounds of cocaine at the Montego Bay Cruise Ship Terminal in St James.
Police arrested the crew member after he was searched and several packets of the drug found on his body.
They then searched a cabin on the vessel and found additional packages of the substance in bathing suits. A second crew member is also being sought by the police in connection with that find.
The seizures come just over two months after Jamaican Customs also unearthed, on March 16th, 122.65 kilos of cocaine at Port Bustamante in Kingston with a street value of more than $700M (Guyana currency).
The seizure was made by the Customs Department after a routine examination of a trans-shipment vessel, MV Vega Azurit from Guyana, which arrived around 05:00hrs that day.
The Jamaican Customs said that no arrests have been made but that preliminary investigations suggest that the drugs were destined for Jamaica.
From initial reports, the container with the drugs left March 12 on the MV Vega Azurit from the John Fernandes Wharf in Georgetown.
It was reported that the logs in the container were part of a shipment from the Aroaima Forest Producers Association but according to records were to be shipped by another vessel, the MV Stadt Rotenburg.
The logs were reportedly processed since in February as 130 pieces. It is here that the situation got murky.
Members of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA)’s Customs reportedly processed seven containers, but eight were listed on the C-72 form, a document that lists all the items to be shipped and the number of containers.
Investigators believed that the name of the vessel was changed from Stadt Rotenburg to Vega Azurit somewhere along the way, which meant that either shipping or Customs officials would have been involved.
Investigators are also working on the theory that the container which was seized in Jamaica may have been slipped in since Customs only checked off 117 pieces while the exporter had declared 130 pieces of logs.
There were accusations between the Guyana Revenue Authority and Guyana Forestry Commission over the incident on who was to be blamed.
Earlier this week, the GRA insisted that a US$1M container scanner bought a year ago is now operational.
The scanner was installed in line with stringent US-shipping regulations which call for increased security at ports of countries.
It is unclear what implications the latest seizure will have on the current security arrangements locally.