Customs Officers trade bullets with heavily-armed chicken smugglers at Mahaicony

Jul 18, 2014 News

Four officers of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA)’s Law Enforcement and Investigation Division (LIED) came under heavy gunfire from smugglers, around 23:25hrs on Wednesday, when they intercepted a shipment of imported chicken.

Gunmen riddled the GRA Officers’ car with bullets.

The incident which occurred at Dundee, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara, saw the GRA officers being forced to seek cover by hiding in nearby yards to avoid death or serious injury from bullets fired from an AK-47 assault rifle.
However, the 10-minute barrage resulted in slight injury to one of the officers, while a resident, Yogeshwar Singh, was grazed by a bullet as he peered through his window to see what was taking place.
Reports reaching this newspaper stated that the GRA officers, who were conducting a surveillance exercise based on intelligence received, had intercepted three mini buses containing 150 boxes of chicken for which no customs papers could be produced, along with a car driven by the son of a notorious smuggler.
According to a statement from the GRA, the officers had taken possession of the keys for the vehicles and the cell phones of the occupants were seized, when the notorious smuggler himself and three accomplices pulled up in a grey Toyota Allion motor vehicle. The men exited and opened fire in the direction of the LEID officials.
“The officers were forced to retreat and take cover, while the detainees escaped in several waiting motor vehicles. When the dust settled, the motor vehicle used by LEID officials to conduct the exercise was badly damaged after being riddled with bullets, as well as two of the detained mini buses. One officer who was not so fortunate was injured about the body with pellets allegedly fired from a shot gun,” the GRA stated.
Speaking with this newspaper one of the officers recalled seeing the smuggler, who is well known, shortly after they had intercepted the vehicles. However he sped away when he realized that they were GRA officers.
According to the GRA officer, a few minutes later the man returned with three other men who began firing bullets at them.
“A man come out de car fuss with a gun and was bare shots. He say ‘ah gon kill alyuh sk#@t.’ Then I see about two other men come out and start firing too. We try to fire back but it was too much for us,” the officer told Kaieteur News.
The officers were forced to preserve their safety when they realized that their weapons were no match for the smugglers.
But according to the officer, the smuggler and his gunmen appeared determined to kill them.
“After we run and hide, these men come looking fuh we. Is like dey really come fuh kill, because was not one or two shots. Normally people would scare you with a couple shots, but these men come with heavy artillery,” the GRA officer explained.
Even after the shooting died down the terrified GRA officers remained in hiding, and it was only after ranks of a police mobile arrived on the scene that they felt safe to come out.

Some of the boxes of smuggled chicken that were eventually seized by the GRA officers.

The shooting also terrorized nearby residents, some of whom fled their homes in fear; thinking that bandits were attacking their community.
A shopkeeper who lived nearby recalled seeing men traversing through a nearby street shortly before the shooting and this made him very suspicious. At the time he did not know that the men were GRA officers who were on a stakeout for the smugglers and his first thought was that bandits were about to strike.
“We see they had guns with them and they were moving in and out of the street and then they hold up all the men dem in the bus with the chicken…we thought was some hold up with somebody,” the shopkeeper said.
He told this newspaper that shortly after a Toyota Allion with licence plate (number provided) pulled up and the occupants exchanged harsh words with the men who had held up the mini buses. It was the notorious smuggler who apparently threatened the GRA in order to get them to abandon their assignment. But when he did not succeed he sped away only to return a few minutes later with three other men with machine guns.
“About ten minutes after de man in de car come back with gunmen and dey fire shots and puncture de Customs men car…Yeah, a lot ah bullets fire man…big gun…a man with a bullet-proof vest,” the shopkeeper said.
He stated that as the gunshots continued to pierce the silence of the night, he and his family took to the floor.
“This last bout five to eight minutes…men running, dogs barking, men firing back and dem gunmen firing. When de shooting done, not too long after de police turn up and when de men who de run and hide come out, den I see is Custom people…We been peeping through we window,” the shopkeeper said.
Another neighbour said that when the shooting started she grabbed her daughter and ran out of her house towards the back of her yard where she sought refuge at her neighbour.
“When we hear de shots I call me husband out and we get scared and get away by de neighbour. We nah get time to look to see anything. We nah know if is thief or wha. We only come back home till about one o’clock when it was very quiet,” the woman said.
She said that she later learnt that her neighbour on the opposite side of the road, Yogeshwar Singh, was hit by a bullet. The wounded man, who was treated at a nearby hospital and sent away, declined to speak with media operatives yesterday. However, his wife said that he got up to investigate the source of the shooting when he was hit by one of the bullets.
“When he get the shot he get blackout and I grab the children and run to the back room. Was a lot of shots and it could’a be worse. This is the first time I ever experience such thing and I hope it would be the last. It was very scary, knowing that you have your kids and this thing happen,” the injured man’s wife told the media.
She said that they too waited until the shooting had died down before coming out of their bedrooms.
Police recovered twenty nine 7.62 spent shells and two warheads, one of which was lodged in Singh’s house.
Up to last night they had not arrested any of the gunmen or the notorious smuggler.
Meanwhile Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur has expressed grave concern at the length to which persons are willing to go to ply their illegal trade, defraud the government of revenues and endanger the lives of consumers with smuggled goods. He said that he is heartened by the commitment of his officers to duty, even in the face of danger to life and limb.
“I commend the officials of LEID for so ably carrying out their duty in spite of the many challenges,” Mr. Sattaur said.
He noted that GRA will continue to play its role and take a strong stance against such nefarious activities and criminal elements.