Cocaine found in rice shipment

Aug 22, 2013 News

A 20 ton shipment of Guyanese grown rice that was destined for Venezuela as part of the two countries’ PetroCaribe rice deal has been confiscated by anti-narcotics officials of the Dominican Republic who say that more than 70 kilogrammes of cocaine was found stashed in the bulk consignment.
The drug discovery onboard the in-transit vessel has tasked local and foreign authorities with ascertaining the origin of the illegal substance. Ranks of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) are therefore collaborating with their foreign counterparts in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic (DR) to determine whether the narcotic was placed in the rice bags before or after it left Guyana.
Head of CANU, James Singh told Kaieteur News yesterday that a shipment of rice was intercepted in the Spanish-speaking nation on August 13, onboard the MV Azuria.

The confiscated drugs.

The drug was contained in 69 packages, weighing a total of 73.34 kilograms.
The vessel is said to be a Liberian-flagged cargo ship. The rice shipment had departed Guyana on August 2nd and docked in Jamaica before moving on to the Dominica Republic where the narcotic was found and laboratory tested.
Investigators say that the drug could have been sneaked on board what has been confirmed as a legitimate shipment of rice from the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) at any of the three ports mentioned.
Declining to go in-depth on the ongoing probe, Singh said however, that the agency is yet to discover whether the drugs came from Guyana and whether the necessary security checks were made on exit.
Head of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Kurshud Sattur said he could not comment on the issue, since he has been away from the office and will be returning to work today. The GRA head posited however that it would be easy to follow the shipment’s paper trail from the agency’s records. He noted that once the rice shipment was legitimate, then records of its movement would be documented along with the route to its final destination.
As it relates to GRA’s security, Sattaur said, “It is mandatory that all relevant security checks are made.” He noted that the agency’s Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) would have been responsible for this, while assuring that checks will be made to ensure that GRA procedures were followed.
General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (GRPA), Dharamkumar Seeraj told Kaieteur News last evening that he is confident that there was no wrongdoing on the local end of the shipment. He explained that the route to Venezuela through the Dominican Republic is not unusual since rice would not be the only commodity onboard the cargo vessel. He noted that when paddy is shipped, it would go directly to the buyer, but rice would normally be exported with other trade goods that are destined for different countries, hence the in-transit stops.
He confirmed that the 20 ton shipment of rice was part of the Venezuela/ Guyana rice deal.
GRDB General Manager, Jagnarine Singh said however that he is unaware of the rice seizure since he was out all day. He noted that all the relevant checks will be made to ascertain information of the cargo’s movement.
So far there has been no local arrest, but reports from the Spanish news agency Dominica Today, say that the nation’s National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) arrested a third suspect yesterday in relation to the 69 bags of cocaine from Jamaica seized at Caucedo, one of the nation’s busiest seaports.
The news agency reported that the DNCD arrested Jose Manuel Alcántara around noon during a raid on an apartment in Andres, in the beach town of Boca Chica, not far from where the drug was seized. They claimed that Alcantara was arrested with a list of the ships about to dock at the port, where he would have received the drug and then re-ship it.
It was further reported that two other men Robert Garcia Ramirez, 36, and Venezuelan national Yonathan Alberto Reyes were arrested as they were about to leave the country aboard Venezuela de Aviacion airline flight 513, headed to Caracas. The busy Caucedo Port, the newspaper said, is a commonplace for drug shipments.