GRA, Police clash over Mahaicony shootout

Jul 20, 2014 News

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They are supposed to be collaborating as partners under the multi agency Task Force on Fuel Smuggling and Contraband,

but the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Revenue Authority are at each other’s throats over last Wednesday night’s bust which netted a shipment of smuggled chicken.
The incident also featured a shootout with Customs Officers and smugglers.
While the Guyana Police Force is lamenting what it called the non-co-operation of the GRA officers, the GRA is questioning the motive of the Force in “delaying justice” against the perpetrators.
On Wednesday at around 23:25 hours, four officers of the Guyana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) Law Enforcement and Investigation Division (LEID) came under heavy gunfire from smugglers when they intercepted a shipment of imported chicken.
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.
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.
The GRA has already tied up the smuggling aspect of the entire incident, and the police are mandated to investigate the exchange of gunfire between the smugglers and officers from the GRA’s Law Enforcement and Investigation Division (LEID), as well as the wounding of the resident.
According to the police they have already arrested two men, including the main suspect.
“The investigations, however, are being stymied by the non-submission of statements to the police by the GRA officials who so far have shown some reluctance to do so,” the police stated.
But the GRA has not taken too kindly to the police statement describing it as wicked, malicious and atrocious and is calling for its retraction of same.
The GRA said that instead of issuing these statements, the police should take swift action to have the criminal elements brought to justice since the GRA has been working with the police from the night of the incident with an initial report.
One LEID official noted that they are in constant communication with the police and he finds it very disturbing that such statements were made.
The official noted that they again met with investigating ranks on Friday and positively identified the suspect.
According to the GRA, its officers have noted that while they were questioned, they sought to follow due process in order to avoid hearsay and ensure that a proper case is made.
The officers, not willing to provide oral responses that can be misconstrued and contorted, indicated that they would provide written statements and were told to submit them by yesterday.
Only last February both the GRA and the Guyana Police Force, along with the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit the Guyana Energy Agency and the Guyana Defence Force signed a Memorandum Of Understanding, to facilitate more collaboration to counter fuel smuggling and other contraband.
At that signing, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee who is Chairman of the Task Force on Fuel Smuggling and Contraband, said that it helps and contributes, to a large extent, to the strengthening of cooperation and collaboration amongst the various constituency signatories to the MOU.
He said much has been achieved since the Task Force was established, the most important being the enhanced collaborating and cooperating among the agencies in which they can act in unison under its purview.

Rohee had said, in Guyana, inter-agency collaboration is of great importance to foster efforts in national security for joint operations under the command of the GDF.
The disagreement between the GRA and the Guyana Police Force is certainly undermining that collaboration and could lead to the perpetrators in this case, escaping justice.
Commissioner-General of the GRA, Khurshid Sattaur said that the actions of the Police leave one to question their motives in delaying justice since LEID officials made initial reports and were being asked to provide the oral statements, which risks thwarting the  course of justice and having a “known” smuggler go free.
“The GRA has nothing to hide or gain and we therefore find such statements mindboggling,” he further stated.
Sattaur said that efforts to contact Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud to have the “wicked, malicious and atrocious” statements retracted, proved futile.
“As a member of the Task Force on Narcotic Drugs and Illicit Weapons, I am surprised that the police would seek to impugn the integrity of GRA officials who risked their lives daily to crack down on the illegal trade of criminals,” Sattaur said.
According to the GRA, it has always enjoyed amicable relations with the police, given that the GRA has a mandate to enforce the laws it administers, and such attempts to mar the GRA’s image threatens to undermine the cordial relations that currently exist.

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