Latest update April 18th, 2025 8:12 AM
Two Customs Officers fired, one suspended
Cocaine in logs seizure in Jamaica…
– another reprimanded for brandishing firearm in unrelated incident
Two Customs Officers have been fired over the March 16th seizure by Jamaican authorities of 122 kilogrammes of cocaine in a container of logs.
According to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), a thorough investigation by its Internal Affairs Division revealed that there were severe breaches of several Customs laws, policies, Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) and the Employees’ Code of Conduct.
The ship on which 122 kilos of cocaine was discovered by Jamaican authorities back in March.
The state agency, in a release dated Tuesday, August 30, said that the services of two officers were terminated, while another was suspended, for their involvement in the concealment of cocaine in a container of logs.
The $700M cocaine bust had seen the GRA and Guyana Forestry Commission, two state entities, squaring off on who was responsible for the shipment.
“The incident has raised concerns about the performance of staff assigned to various ports
of entry/exit. Hence, the GRA has reviewed the established SOPs to ensure that more stringent measures are in place to monitor imports and exports,” GRA said in the statement yesterday.
Commissioner-General, Khurshid Sattaur, said that he was “elated that the investigation into the shipment of illicit drugs was conducted without any setbacks”.
He was supportive of the recommendations made by the investigating team, and disclosed that all of those recommendations have since been implemented.
Sattaur also noted that the public can give confidential tips by reporting any inappropriate behaviour by officers of the agency through its hotline, 225-6687.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident, the GRA said an officer attached to its Surveillance and Anti-Smuggling Section (SASS) was reprimanded and transferred to another section following an altercation with a civilian. Investigations revealed that the officer drew his firearm and threatened the civilian during the altercation.
The police were reportedly called in and the firearm which was issued to the officer was seized by the lawmen.
“The GRA employee, who is a former member of the Guyana Police Force, was rebuked for the poor judgment displayed during the incident.”
Sattaur in stressing the importance of integrity to the entity pointed out that the staff has a role in maintaining same.
“Our integrity must never come under scrutiny. Rogue officers will be dealt with in a condign manner.”
The release continued: “However, he is concerned that some sections of the media are continuing to jeopardize investigations which are in progress by publishing information that can compromise the investigations before they are completed. Specific reference was made to an article published in the August 10, 2011 edition of Stabroek News captioned ‘Customs Officer sacked, three suspended over cocaine in container’. The Commissioner General cautioned that it was unfortunate and a lack of journalistic ethics that the newspaper did not check with the Revenue Authority to ascertain the facts, and is calling on all media houses to be more professional when executing their duties.”
A total of 122.65 kilograms of cocaine was found in a container with a consignment of lumber that was destined for China, Jamaican press had reported in March.
On March 16, Jamaican drug authorities made the bust aboard the MV Mega Azurit that had departed Guyana on March 11. Recently again, another shipment of cocaine, this time from Suriname, was busted again from the ship, in Jamaica.
In the ensuing tussle between the GRA and GFC, the latter 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.
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