Though there was little public doubt that the narcotics business has grasped deeply into the sinews of life in Guyana, the rapid fire busts in the United States must be cause for concern. In a matter of months, US authorities have cracked two significant rings which ran cocaine on board aircraft between Guyana and New York. Various methods were used to ferry the drugs - couriers, mail bags, cargo and stashed away in the aircraft itself.

Baggage handlers at the JFK airport predominate among the category of persons arrested though in the more recent case suspected kingpins were said to be among those charged but not yet detained. If that weren't enough, former national cyclist Paul Choo-wee-nam was last month indicted in the US on drug charges which carry a penalty of life imprisonment and a huge fine. In this case, a load of cocaine was carried aboard a freighter. These recent incidents come on top of the interceptions by UK and Ghanaian authorities of cocaine in Guyanese shipments of timber and rice respectively. Canadian authorities in recent years have also made busts at the J R Pearson airport and a former Miss Guyana, Mia Rahaman, is now before a Toronto court on a cocaine trafficking charge.

As if to make the point even clearer, the US State Department's annual drug report has warned that drug traffickers have Guyana increasingly in their sights and added "…the economic, political and social conditions in Guyana make it a prime target … for narcotics traffickers to expand their illicit activities".

It has become clear that while there is cooperation at some level with the authorities here, foreign governments targeted by the drug traffickers are keen for prosecutions to be done in their jurisdictions rather than here. This must undoubtedly have been shaped by their unnerving experiences here most notably the meticulous Royal Canadian Mounted Police-led investigation several years ago targeting suspected kingpins which collapsed in the local courts. More recently a courier held at Timehri suddenly changed her mind about testifying in court against those accused of arranging the shipment after threats were made. Of even greater impact is the apparent unwillingness or the plain inability of the enforcement arms here to investigate, prosecute and secure convictions in these cases. As a result, there has been no attempt to this date to unravel who was behind the exportation last year of cocaine in timber though any self-respecting narcotics agency on the ball would have instantly known who had done it and pulled in enough suspects and witnesses to build a credible case. The same is true for the rice shipment to Ghana and no-one should hold their breath to see if the local authorities try to retrace the journey of the shipment which has landed Choo-wee-nam in a US court, some years after he had been freed of similar charges here.

The disturbing reality is that as other countries crack down tightly on the trade by devoting more resources to interdicting the trade and by stiffening penalties and securing convictions, Guyana will become an even more attractive transit destination for South American coke on its way to North America and Europe. The more cocaine transshipped through Guyana, the larger the amount that will be left here to spawn sales and couriering. The more the drug is successfully marketed through Guyana, the larger the number of addicts created and the greater the threat to the stability of this volatile society and its international standing.

Already, the cocaine trade through Guyana has spawned fiefdoms supported by mini-militias which execute a range of operations. At the height of the crime wave in 2002-2003, there was evidently some type of relationship between the drug criminals and those at the head of the banditry. Inevitably, a violent clash ensued between the two streams of outlaws which hastened the demise of the criminal movement led by the escapees. Of note, during this period, was the execution of the head of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and another senior officer, dealing a severe blow to that organisation's ability to do its job and its morale. The CANU head had more than likely stepped into the way of the traffickers and he paid the ultimate price. His killing, like so many others, went unsolved - a sign of capitulation or plain paralysis by the authorities here.

As their business thrives the drug lords become even more powerful, can effortlessly corrupt public officials and politicians by spreading money around and can wield even more influence in the corridors of power. The most recent bust in the US smashed a smuggling ring which was netting at least US$75M per year - hardly chicken feed. It is believed that large amounts of laundered money are helping to prop up the local currency by increasing the supply of US dollars on the local market. If there was to be a severe crackdown the local currency would gravitate downwards to its true level. There is no immediate threat of this though as our anti-money laundering legislation is still on the slow road to activation and even then monitoring and enforcement will be a big problem. The US State Department report like several others posits that there is likely a high level of money laundering here though this cannot be accurately measured.

The more acute Guyana's drug trafficking profile is, the more donor countries and investors may think twice about sinking money into an economy where narco-terrorism risks - executions, extortion, kidnappings and inter-gang warfare - are high.

While the country faces many pressing problems, the reign of the drug lords is not one that the government can ignore. It must in tandem with its continental neighbours and the governments of destination countries fashion a comprehensive strategy to protect its borders from traffickers and vigorously prosecute those who penetrate it. Key aspects of this would be the anti-money laundering legislation, the strengthening and integration of the anti-drug units here and close co-operation with overseas law enforcement agencies. The evidence of real success would be the prosecution and jailing of drug lords as opposed to the incarceration of the lowly couriers.