The seven detainees are said to be the captain and six crew of the 60-foot wooden boat.

They were handed over to port authorities in New Amsterdam, Berbice, where they spent the night, and subsequently to senior officials of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) in Georgetown.

The arrests and subsequent detention of the craft, the ‘Novo Brazilian 111’, a GDF release said, occurred around 13:00 hours some five nautical miles off Bush Lot, on the Corentyne River.

Documents found aboard the vessel, the release stated, revealed that it was registered in Brazil and had left there en route to neighbouring Suriname the week before, on Friday May 10.

Documentation also showed a discrepancy between the quantity of equipment accounted for in the vessel’s manifest and what was actually found in the hold.

The captain of the vessel, whose name has been given as Emanuel de Jesus Fransa Bia, is claiming, however, that the craft encountered minor problems along the way resulting in his not being able to reach his destination on time.

Head of the GDF Coast Guard, Commander Godfrey George, is quoted as saying that the interception of the vessel was as a result of “a synchronised operation” between his division and the GDF Air Corps.

This operation, he said, entailed an aerial reconnaissance of Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by the Air Corps some 48 hours prior to the conduct of surface patrols by the ‘Essequibo’ and the four motor life boats (MLBs).

George said the Brazilian vessel was first sighted by the ‘recce’ patrol, which then passed on the information to Coast Guard Headquarters.

Since the acquisition of the MLBs, the ‘Essequibo’ and the Y-12 aircraft, the Coast Guard and the Air Corps have increased their activities in Guyana’s territorial waters.