Breaking the back of criminal networks

Sep 14, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – “The bust is not the end of the matter, we have every intention in working with our partners to destabilise and break the back of all criminal networks especially in drug trafficking operating within our territorial space and airspace. We have already asked and we are ready to work with our partners once we are given the assets, and once we can secure the assets to deal with all the over flights that are passing over our airspace, we are ready to work with you in dismantling the global empire that drug trade has created but we need that support.”

President Ali could be depended upon to come up with the right words to suit the occasion. He usually doesn’t disappoint, and in the matter of the giant Matthews Ridge Drug bust, the president was in good form. The moment was right: the unveiling of the new National Defense Institute and his remarks at the Arthur Chung Conference Center. The president, as quoted above must be commended for his stirring words, the seriousness of his apparent commitment to dismantle criminal networks in Guyana. But there are some realities that the carefully avoided, and which house the troubling, what clashes with his highflying postures.

In that major Matthews Ridge drug bust, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) was not largely uninvolved. If it was involved at all, it was invisible and remotely. This doesn’t help to “break the backs of all criminal networks” as welcome as that would be and as impressive as it sounds. If the GPF had little to no role in something as big as the Matthews Ridge drug operation, then that does not say much about the trust placed in it, nor the efficiency that it brings to the table. Were there fears from the Americans about a potential leak as to the development and timing of the interception, thus compromising months, if not years, of careful work? This is not helpful at all to President Ali’s ringing words about his government’s intention to deal criminal networks serious body blows from which there is little hope to recover. Guyanese harbor certain sentiments about the GPF and most of them do not accrue to its credit. This is unhealthy for law enforcement, and it agitates the peace of mind of citizens. To go further, it could be said that criminals and their networks are encouraged to greater efforts. For when they are armed with the knowledge that the GPF’s operational environment is subject to such negative local and foreign attitudes, the criminals see a clearer path, are more incentivized. Relative to negative foreign perceptions of the GPF, the proof is in who from Guyana was involved and who was left out in that Matthews Ridge drug mission.

When the foregoing is attached to the news that a senior police officer is suspected of some involvement with the drug developments at Matthews Ridge, this all but confirms what Guyanese (and possibly Americans) think and conclude about the GPF. Because if, indeed, a senior cop was that close to a likely long standing traffic, he could not have been operating alone. It means that junior ranks may have also been ensnared in what was going on in the remote hinterlands. If so, and that is the only such weakened GPF network of still to be proven rogue members, there may be some hope for Guyana, and the president’s commitment to “break the back of all criminal networks”. If, however, there are more such rogue cells in the GPF, as many Guyanese believe, then dismantling criminal networks just became an almost undoable project, nothing but a big pipe dream, with words that dress up the situation.

To break the back of all criminal networks is a noble undertaking. Bigger and better governments have tried in more helpful environments, with limited success. Locally, leadership speeches have their flashes of meaning, then they often diminish to nothing. A depoliticized GPF would help, and a professional one could deliver on President Ali’s grand words. Unfortunately, GPF and other local realities stand as major obstacles in his drive to “break the back of all criminal networks.” The sound is good; the supporting substances are just too soft.

Arthur Chung Conference Center, breaking, Criminal, Editorial, networks

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Breaking the back of criminal networks

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