Three customs officers in custody over deleted scanner images

Nov 10, 2020 News

Belgium coke bust…

What Belgian authorities found

Kaieteur News – As police continue their probe into Belgium’s 11.5 tonnes of seizure of cocaine shipped from Guyana, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) has reported that three customs officers attached to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) were taken into custody.
Their arrest comes after it was discovered that the scanned images of the containers taken at the Georgetown city’s port were deleted. Kaieteur News was made to understand that four containers left Guyana on September 25 shipped by Marlon Primo’s MA Trading, of Atlantic Ville, East Coast Demerara, to the consignee, Lotraco Recycling BV, The Netherlands.

Person of Interest: Marlon Primo

But according to sources, only three of those containers were scanned and the images were later deleted. Under regulations, containers considered to be high risk leaving Guyana have to be scanned at the facility on Lombard Street, Georgetown as part of the country’s protocols for exports. It would have been impossible for the container to have escaped GRA’s system of being scanned. Now, GRA is attempting to retrieve the images.
Guyana’s Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn, in an invited comment on the issue, expressed alarm at the large bust and the fact that the shipment was able to pass undetected through Guyana’s surveillance systems.
“I have to say,” Benn stated, “that we are extremely alarmed at the shipment, the fact that it managed to escape or was allowed to pass through the surveillance system in terms of container scanners, container checks and all those things in relation to the matter.”
For such a large bust, Benn explained, it would take precision and planning for months on end. “We have assured the European authorities,” he stated, “the Belgium authorities and also the US authorities of our vigorous engagement of coming to terms and dealing with and discovering those who were involved in perpetrating this crime.”
Meanwhile, the search is still on for the local scrap iron shipper, Primo. CANU’s Head, James Singh had expressed concerns about his safety, even offering him protection. Singh had told Kaieteur News that CANU has the capacity and assures the protection of Primo.
The massive load of cocaine left Guyana on September 25 and was opened in Belgium on October 27, with an estimated street value at €900 million. It was disguised as scrap metal and placed inside a steel container which was in turn packed into a shipping container and loaded into a transatlantic vessel.