Latest update November 15th, 2024 1:00 AM
Undercover probe brought down Chinese-run gold smuggling gang – VP Jagdeo says
– gold was shipped out through Suriname
Kaieteur News – Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo at his weekly party press-conference on Thursday said that a six-month-long undercover operation has been able to dismantle a Chinese gold smuggling ring that has been illegally shipping out Guyana’s gold via neighbouring Suriname.
The Chinese travel agent remanded for illegal gun possession, Ying Xin Su
“I have seen over the last few days that one of the major rings that involves Chinese nationals that was buying a lot of the gold and smuggling this gold out particularly to Suriname that have been busted due to undercover work and this has been going on for a while”, the VP told reporters.
He said that the undercover operations have found that the Chinese nationals caught were operating out of hotels. “Wanted bulletins have been issued for many of them” Jagdeo said while adding “We believe that it was a form of money laundering but also gold smuggling”.
The VP then noted that the undercover work was a major operation that has gone on for nearly six months. On Tuesday July 9, 2024 police reported that it had dismantled a transnational criminal network around 12:40hrs that day following an inter-agency intelligence operation at a city hotel. It led to the arrest of two Chinese men and a woman. Some $39M in cash was confiscated and police found an illegal firearm and bullets in their possession. Police had said too that, “investigations thus far revealed that the suspects are part of a transnational criminal group involved in gold smuggling and other illegal activities”.
Police did not say what those other illegal activities are but on Monday, a wanted bulletin was issued by the Special organized Crime Unit (SOCU) for another Chinese national identified as Zhenjian Fang of 47 New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara (WCD). According to the bulletin, he is wanted for questioning in relation to money laundering and related serious offences in Guyana. Reporters later requested updates from the police on the three Chinese nationals that were busted at the city hotel.
Wanted for questioning in relation to money laundering and related serious offences in Guyana, Zhenjian Fang.
So far police have responded that one of them, a female travel agent identified as Ying Xin Su, 30, was on Tuesday remanded for the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition and will make her next court appearance on July 22, 2024. She was reportedly employed with Muneshwar Travel Services Limited and lived at the Princess Ramada Hotel. Police have been silent on the two men arrested but Kaieteur News understands however, one of them, Yang Su, had told investigators that he is the travel agent’s driver.
As investigations continue into the alleged gold smuggling ring, it should be noted that this is not the first time that reports of Chinese criminal networks operating in Guyana have surfaced. Two years ago, Vice News had premiered a 24-minute-long documentary exposing Chinese businesses allegedly involved in criminal networks, corruption and money laundering in Guyana.
Vice News undercover reporters speaking with Chinese gold miners in Guyana
According to Vice-News, “China’s rapidly growing presence in South America has reached Guyana” and it went undercover to expose allegations of corruption in business deals between the two countries. The media company in its exposé had even sought to link Jagdeo to corrupt practices between the two countries by shedding light on his relationship with his former friend, tenant and Chinese Businessman Su Zhirong. Su Zhirong in the documentary had reportedly alleged to the Vice News reporters posing as Chinese business that he acted as a middleman for Jagdeo in collecting bribes to award large-scale contracts to Chinese companies.
Jagdeo had denied the allegations in the documentary and repeatedly after it was aired and is presently awaiting a default judgment in a defamation lawsuit, which he had filed against the Chinese businessman who had amassed a significant portion of mineral-rich land under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration. According to the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) documents, Su holds some 12,000 acres of precious stones and gold-rich lands under his name.
A section of the documentary showed the undercover reporters meeting with two Chinese men to allegedly discuss a deal to launder large sums of cash into Guyana and to pay bribes and set-up other business deals in country. Follow the link to watch the Vice News Documentary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOOFSJqBYTY).
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