A team of Scotland Yard investigators arrived here on Thursday, and has met the police to consider the evidence gathered in its investigation of the 120 kilogrammes of cocaine uncovered in a consignment of timber shipped to the United Kingdom in May. The cocaine reportedly has a street value of G$1.9 billion.

Sources close to the police told Stabroek News that the British investigators were surprised by the amount of information the police had put together and are now considering the strategies to be employed as the investigation moves forward.

In gathering their information, the police spoke with the six persons who exported timber to the United Kingdom between April 29 and May 6, including one importer who had informed Stabroek News that he had not shipped any timber after January to the UK.

Seven persons were charged in the United Kingdom in connection with the importation of the cocaine into that country. Surveillance by the British authorities put four of them in contact with the backers of a cultural event staged here. The contact was made at a boxing match held in the United States and was followed by a visit here by Jamaican businessman, Leebert Barrows, one of those charged in the United Kingdom. The other persons charged with Barrow are businessman Gerald Davies, hairdresser Anthony Chambers, accountant Mohamed Afzal Shaheen, civil servant Milton Wilson, transport manager Michael Silcox and business development manager Joseph Salmon.

Stabroek News understands that Barrows’ visit was to facilitate the shipment and that for some months he had been under surveillance by the British authorities, even during his visits to Guyana.

HM Customs discovered the cocaine when the MV Antilles, which sailed from Guyana some time around May 6, docked at Felixstowe, a container port in England.

A team of officers from HM Customs, the National Crime Squad and the Gwent police tracked the consignment to a South Wales industrial estate where on June 7 they arrested Barrows and his colleagues.

They have been in custody since their arrest and pleaded not guilty to the charges laid against them at a hearing at the Caerphilly Magistrates Court.

They are due to stand trial before Cardiff Crown Court on December 12.

During a previous hearing at the Cardiff Crown Court which the seven had approached because of the length of time they were being held without bail, Stabroek News understands that the prosecution tendered a 1,500-page document, a CD Rom and a videotape of their arrest. The video also contained information about Barrows’ visit to Guyana in January and February last year.

Since the discovery of the cocaine at Felixstowe, another cocaine find was made at the same port last month in a consignment of rice shipped from Guyana to Ghana. The cocaine was tracked to Tema, Ghana, where officers of the Narcotics Control Board of Ghana arrested three Ghanaian businessmen, two of whom operate out of Amsterdam, when they took delivery of the rice.

Sources close to the police have told Stabroek News that the authorities here were aware of the shipment and that it was a “controlled delivery.”

As a result of the discovery of the cocaine in the timber shipment, the Customs and Trade Administration has instituted new inspection procedures, which the Forest Products Association charges, has added to the costs of the exporters.

In recent months the customs authorities in Canada and the United Kingdom have seized a considerable quantity of cocaine smuggled out of Guyana. Among those caught were Mia Rahaman, a former Miss Guyana/Universe who was detained in Canada and a South African citizen who had travelled from Guyana who was detained at Manchester Airport.

Recently, the Globe and Mail, a Canadian daily, reported that the Toronto police had busted a drug ring which involved Canadian nationals travelling to Guyana to pick up suitcases in which cocaine was hidden and return to Canada. A Canadian Customs officer was implicated in the drug ring.