Devindra Kissoon threatens “arrest and imprisonment” of competitors in explosives business

Jun 28, 2026 News

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(Kaieteur News) – As Guyana undergoes an unprecedented macro-economic transformation fueled by immense offshore oil wealth, a surge in infrastructure development has exposed a critical vulnerability in the nation’s supply chain. To build its planned transnational highways, sea defenses, and energy facilities, the country requires millions of tons of crushed stone. To get the stone, quarries need commercial explosives.

But access to those explosives flows almost entirely through a single commercial channel, raising profound questions about market competition, legal architecture, and economic efficiency in the world’s fastest-growing economy.

In a three-part series, this investigation examines the structural dynamics of Guyana’s commercial explosives market, the legal maneuvers used to maintain its current architecture, and the broader macroeconomic implications as the state launches a new national mining consortium.

PART 1: The Legal Paradox: Safety Laws and Market Control in Guyana’s Explosives Trade

According to public firm biographies and marketing materials, Guyanese attorney Devindra (Dave) Kissoon—a U.S. citizen and former director of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Guyana—and his firm, London House Chambers, represent Orica Mining Services, the world’s largest commercial explosives provider. In these materials, Kissoon’s operation is described as the “exclusive supplier of explosives to the Guyanese mining market” for decades.

A review of statutory frameworks and court filings reveals a complex legal architecture that has facilitated this concentrated market power, highlighting a stark contradiction between Guyana’s public safety regulations and its anti-monopoly mandates.

The commercial explosives market in Guyana is governed by the Explosives Act, which grants the executive branch and the Commissioner of Police unilateral authority to issue import licenses and certify secure storage vaults. While designed to prevent the illicit diversion of dangerous materials, legal analysts note that this strict regulatory gatekeeping has effectively created an insurmountable barrier to entry for competing firms.

Simultaneously, the Civil Law of Guyana Act explicitly prohibits economic monopolies. The statute states that all grants or licenses for the “sole buying, selling, making, working, or using of anything within Guyana… are altogether contrary to the laws of Guyana, and so are and shall be utterly void.”

Despite this, court filings demonstrate that potential competitors have been systematically blocked from the market through aggressive civil litigation.

In 2015, Dominicana De Cales, S.A. (Docalsa), a regional licensee of global explosives distributor Dyno Nobel, attempted to enter the Guyanese market. Court records show that Kissoon filed an ex parte application—a proceeding where the opposing party is not present—arguing that Docalsa’s offers to domestic buyers constituted a “tortious interference” with his prospective business relations. In his July 30, 2015 sworn affidavit, Kissoon explicitly named major international mining operators—including BK Quarries Inc., AGM Inc., Guyana Goldfields Inc., Troy Resources Guyana Inc., and Pharsalus Gold Inc.—as clients with whom he expected continuous business, juxtaposing his own sworn claims of market control against the nation’s anti-trust laws.

The High Court granted an interim injunction in August 2015, effectively freezing Docalsa out of the market. Leaked appellate documents reveal a protracted procedural timeline: when Docalsa attempted to discharge the injunction in December 2016, Kissoon utilised procedural arguments to strike out their defense. The case remained stalled until May 2018, when the Full Court finally dismissed Kissoon’s procedural objections and ordered the hearing to proceed—illustrating how preemptive litigation can tie up competitors for years during critical periods of economic expansion.

Simultaneously, leaked correspondence obtained during this investigation shows that on August 14, 2015, London House Chambers issued a cease-and-desist letter to Docalsa bypassing standard commercial negotiation. The letter directly threatened a “warrant for your arrest and imprisonment” if the competitors did not withdraw, noting that customs had been instructed to seize and destroy their products.

This strategy of pre-emptive legal action continues. On November 12, 2025, London House Chambers issued another cease-and-desist letter to domestic actors—including Eclisar Financial, a firm involved in state-sponsored audits of offshore oil operations. The leaked letter, which was explicitly copied to the Minister of Natural Resources and the Commissioner of Police, threatened “actual, punitive and exemplary damages against you in an amount to exceed US$1,000,000.00.” The correspondence alleged attempts to import competing explosives and boldly asserted the incumbent as the “only authorized explosives dealer in Guyana.”

Legal and international trade observers note a profound irony in these market dynamics. Kissoon was previously a lead commercial counsel in a landmark case that successfully dismantled a decade-long state telecommunications monopolyheld by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), arguing successfully that monopolies were unlawful under the very same Civil Law Act.

Furthermore, foreign investors note that while Kissoon is deeply tied to the U.S.-Guyana business community—a jurisdiction where the Sherman Antitrust Act strictly criminalises monopolistic behaviour—his aggressive use of local courts to threaten competitors risks creating a severe chilling effect on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the region.

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• arrest and imprisonment, Devindra Kissoon, explosives, Infrastructure Development:

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