Guyana closer to becoming a narco state - Granger

Guyana closer to becoming a narco state – Granger

Feb 20, 2014 News

Leader of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Brig. David Granger has said that “Guyana is now closer than it has ever been to becoming a narco state” based on the revelations of Guyana’s narcotic linkages and the government’s inability to enforce drug trafficking measures.

Leader of the APNU David Granger

The retired Brigadier who is experienced within the realm of National Security said that from 1999 to 2012 there have been a series of security reform initiatives promulgated by the current administration which have amounted to no significant change within the security sector.
According to Granger, “For 15 years the government of Guyana has been receiving plans, reports and recommendations from the British. The country has even come up with its own plans.
“I have participated in at least three of them, as a member of the border and National Security committee, a member of the Disciplined Forces Commission and I was a member of National Security Strategy Organizing Committee.”
The Opposition Leader said that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has never fully implemented its own National Drug strategy Master Plan. He said that APNU has the plans; the party knows what to do and is “sincere about uprooting narco trafficking.”
According to Granger, Guyanese drug traffickers are not linked to a few Koreans in Barbados or St. Maarten, but to the Italian Mafia. “That is where our drug trade takes us now, a murderous Mafia and I really shudder to think what would happen if we had murderous Mafiosi coming into this country, trying to enforce narco trafficking. It is there in the papers and from the British and American papers; it is well known” said Granger.
Granger implored that no inroads are being made into the drug fight. Only the pushers and dealers are jailed while the kingpins still continue. “We catch a few girls with a couple of grams in her brassiere and we put her in New Amsterdam prison for three years, but the people who are taking drugs out by the ton never get caught.
“The people who are building airstrips and receiving cocaine by the ton are not being caught and this cocaine is finding its way into Mozambique, into Ghana, into Malaysia, into Italy and all around the world” he said.
He said that APNU’s “Master” plan is to bring narco trafficking eventually to an end, since he posits that “narco trafficking is the mother of all crimes; it encourages gun running because guns have to come in to protect the crime as happened between 2000 and 2008 with Mr. Shaheed Khan.
“It is linked to money laundering because when people get these use amounts of money it has to be laundered, so that is why we are so concerned with the AML Bill because we know that although the government has had AML legislation for 14 years, they have not brought a single prosecution.”
The Opposition leader speaking on how APNU intends to fight the drug trade posited that his coalition plans primarily to enforce the very acts including the National Drug Strategy Master Plan which is now on the table and well as strengthening the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to “cut of the head of criminality” and bring narco trafficking to an end.
According to Granger at the top of the list is strengthening the Guyana Police Force (GPF), he said that before emphasis is placed on community and neighbourhood policing the GPF should be retrained, reequipped and reorganized.
“Police have to be better paid and they have to be retrained, that is the most important thing, having a good police force… the important thing is to ensure that you have an efficient police force, well paid well trained and committed to performing their duties.”
He said that there is a high level of demoralization because of political interference in the internal operations of the GPF, which he posits reduces the effectiveness of the force. “Look at what happened in the Corentyne Coast; there was no evidence that those policemen were involved in illegalities, yet they were scattered all around the country.
“It turns out now that there were local gangs operating in that area but because of the Minister’s intrusive behaviour innocent police men have now been stigmatized by being transferred.”
“Unless you deal with the police force you cannot deal with things like murder, banditry, piracy all of these other crimes and traffic accidents can only be brought under control by an efficient police force, if you have a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that is weak, if you have traffic police that are weak or venal, they are taking bribes you can’t stamp out crime… at any level whether it’s domestic violence or narco trafficking,” said Granger.