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DDL believes cocaine was added to its rum outside of Guyana
— says rigorous screening, checks would have detected the drugs
Kaieteur News – The Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) said that the various checks and balances executed in Guyana, including its own security mechanisms employed during the packing of containers with its product at its Diamond plant, would have detected the 1,100lbs of cocaine found in a shipment of El Dorado Rum last week in the Netherlands.
The Guyanese rum shipment in which the cocaine was found.
The more than 1000 pounds of cocaine were on November 25th discovered by Netherlands authorities in a rum shipment that arrived there. According to information received by Kaieteur News, cases of liquor were packed in a container and mounted onto a commercial container vessel in Guyana. James Singh, head of the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) here however, pointed out that the container was scanned before takeoff, and, based on those images and investigations conducted by his ranks, no cocaine was loaded in Guyana. The commercial container vessel had reportedly made stops in two other countries, before it eventually arrived at a port located in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
CANU, however, continues to work with the authorities in the Netherlands to investigate the crime. Meanwhile, in its statement DDL said it will continue to put the necessary safeguards in place to protect its brand. “DDL has always been and remains committed to ensuring that its reputable image and that of its internationally acclaimed Demerara brands of rum, which only recently won Geographic Indication (GI) recognition in Europe, is never compromised,” it said. The beverage giant said it is disappointed that its recent shipment of rum was contaminated.
“DDL is concerned that international shipping routes, which necessitate transshipment through certain other countries, now present a growing lack of confidence in transshipment arrangements and hopes that more effective security and detection measures would be implemented, so as to prevent contamination of shipments that threaten the credibility of reputable companies and their products which earn significant foreign exchange for the nation,” it added.
According to the company, it was as a result of its rigid commitment to protection of its unblemished image and that of its supply chain and its products that the recent discovery was made by staff of its contracted bonded warehouse, who immediately called in the relevant law enforcement agencies in the Netherlands.
DDL subsequently informed the Guyana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) Customs officials. CANU was subsequently informed by both the Netherlands authorities and the GRA. “Further evidence of DDL’s commitment to protection of its shipments against contamination and international recognition of this commitment is the fact that the authorities in the Netherlands released the shipment to DDL’s control once the illegal substance was removed later the same day of the discovery,” the company said.
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