Contacted yesterday, Deputy Head of CANU, Mr Vibert Inniss, who spearheaded Thursday’s bust, would only confirm that several persons have been questioned and that the investigations are continuing.

The prohibited drug, the equivalent of 4,116 pounds with a street value in excess of $60M (not 850 pounds valued at $12M as was reported yesterday), was found concealed behind a false inner wall in the container.

The drug, which was in compressed form and stacked in an area seven feet high and three and a half feet wide, was securely wrapped and taped in 390 bales of varying sizes, bearing the markings BBL; KAZ; LNC; SKP; MK; DV; GC; BT and BCC among others.

The container, tagged for shipment to Miami, was in the process of being loaded onto a Sea Freight Line vessel `Henrich-J’, when the discovery was made. At the very time, CANU and Customs were conducting a joint monitoring exercise. Personnel of these agencies are of the view that containers are frequently utilised in the transshipment of narcotics out of Guyana.

Inniss said exercises of that nature have been a norm for sometime. However, Wednesday’s discovery was the biggest bust on a wharf by CANU.

It took the CANU and Customs officials some two hours to remove, weigh, and load the parcels into a vehicle for transportation under tight security.

The container with a Sea Freight Line logo, according to sources, arrived here on May 1 from Jamaica with a consignment of plastic bags for Wholesale Depot, Eccles, East Bank Demerara.

The local agent for the Sea Freight Line is C&V Caribbean Shipping Limited, but officials there have been referring all queries regarding the container to CANU.

Thursday’s container drug bust is reminiscent of the first occurrence on January 5, 1995 at the same John Fernandes Shipping wharf.

Then, 5,000 pounds of marijuana was uncovered in another 40-ft container, which was also being shipped to Miami.

Investigations led to a then popular Regent Street businessman and another associate being convicted and jailed.