Cocaine Country

Dec 01, 2020 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Eleven tonnes of anything is massive by any standard. Eleven tonnes of cocaine is extraordinary, even when there is considering Guyana’s sordid history with this destructive, but so fabulously profitable product. In view of the enormous bulk of the shipment that now appears to have originated from these shores, there is so much that can be-and should be-asked of how and where and what we are in this society.
The public details from the media are of one man being sought for questioning, who has since vanished without a trace; of possibly altered electronic records at the GRA, and then to top it all off, the backup files that are gone.
Just like the man needed as part of the police inquiries on a matter that has caused some raised eyebrows here (and not much more) and which has resonated in Belgium, and wider Europe and the world, given the enormous interdiction.
Eleven-plus tonnes of cocaine discovered anywhere is not an everyday development. In addition, the fact that Guyana has nothing on which to go, even make some effort towards a start says how sewed up is this society when certain criminal activities are contemplated.
For here it is that more than, in a description that citizens should be able to appreciate, the equivalent of two fully loaded sand trucks (with a fraction of a ton to spare) passed through this country’s screens, checks and balances, and people, and our officials are reduced to pawing the ground and sniffing the air. From all indications, they keep coming up empty, not even short. They have nothing with which to work.
But clearly, a tonne of careful and clever work, many tonnes, were in place for the arrival and departure of such an immense movement to take place under our noses and eyes. This is not the kind of weight, the kind of planning, the kind of arrangement, or the kind of sophistication that can be left to ordinary runners. By this we mean the suitcase shippers and narcotics mules.
This was a big load for big money that had to involve big people with big reach to get a big deal executed. And that it was, with all those things contributing with awesome resourcefulness, skill, and intricacy.
Even though it involves a destructive and lethal commodity, the sheer scale of the enterprise takes the breath away. The audacity of such a project called for generalship of the highest order. That is, almost like that which went into the preparation and execution of the Normandy Invasion in World War II. The Americans had their Desert Storm, and Guyanese just experienced the ‘shock and awe’ of their Demerara La Nina in what had all the stealth of an unequalled ninja operation.
It cannot be the scrap iron man, of whom there is neither sighting nor sounding, which should not surprise anyone. And even if he ever surfaces, in whatever form, the tracks will lead nowhere. There is sure to be no trail that points to anything or anyone – either paper or electronic or verbal. What we have is the silence and stillness of an underworld Hades. But it is one that brings so much light to bear on the way things are here.
For such is the airtight compartmentalization of the drug universe as the elevations get higher. In this country, we call them ‘the big fish.’’ They have to be to be able to make things such as these move undetected, make men disappear, and make files evaporate. They have to know the powerful, who know them, take their money, which is bottomless and always available for the giving. When public men talk up a storm about positive visions, and then turn around and take from those who bring their rich gifts, a whole society is rendered vulnerable and held hostage.

Those 11 tonnes of cocaine are not about a scrap metal shipment alone. Or of one man alone. But of a few men, who have power and reach to make anything happen, to bend our laws, our people, our practices to their will at their time, their bidding. The tentacles of such criminal control runs deep and wide. It is Guyana’s reality.

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