An informed source has told Stabroek News that a team of Scotland Yard detectives was due to arrive here last night to pursue investigations into the origins of the cocaine that was found hidden in a consignment of timber held at a UK port.
The police however continue to remain silent about this development with officers denying any knowledge of the team’s arrival. The office of Acting Commissioner of Police, Floyd McDonald, said he was not in.
The consignment in which the cocaine, valued at $1.9B or 8M pounds sterling, was hidden was shipped to the United Kingdom some time in the past nine weeks. The identity of the exporter is being kept closely guarded by the management of the dock from which the shipment was loaded onto the “EWL Venezuela”. The agencies responsible for licensing and checking the consignment before the vessel departed are also saying nothing.
Despite repeated attempts, Stabroek News has been unable to speak with Commissioner, Customs and Trade Administration, Lambert Marks as well as Commissioner of Forests, James Singh, whose office said that he was out of town.
Officers from the Customs and Trade Administration would have also checked and sealed the container in which the consignment was placed. Its officers would have also checked the ship to ensure that no goods other than those on its manifest were on board the vessel.
Officers from the Guyana Forestry Commission, which licensed the shipment, would have checked the shipment to ensure that the quantity and species accorded with the details stated on the licence.
The British authorities including HM Customs and Excise also declined to give any information beyond that contained in its press releases on the grounds that the investigation was still live.
The 120 kg of cocaine was unloaded at the Felixstowe container port and was followed to its destination in Wales where a combined team of officers from HM Customs and the National Crime Squad and the Gwent Police arrested seven persons including a Jamaica businessman, all resident in Wales on June 7. They appeared before the Caerphilly Magistrate’s Court on Monday and were remanded into custody until June 16.
The seven are Lebert Anthony Barrows of Jamaica, Anthony Junior Chambers, Michael Silcox, Gerald Davies, Mohammed Afzal Shaheen, Milton Wilson and Joseph Salmon.