In last three months 70 deported
-mainly for drug offences
Stabroek News
April 17, 2004
Seventy persons were deported to Guyana within the last three months for offences which ranged from assault to attempted murder, according to information from the police.
People who were convicted for drug dealing accounted for most of the deportees, 62 of whom were sent back from the United States. Canada and Barbados were the two other source countries.
For the period January 14 to April 8 there were 30 people who were deported for trafficking or possession of narcotics. Of this figure, 28 people were deported from the US, while the remaining two were returned from Canada.
At least three of these offenders served ten-year prison sentences, including one man who left Guyana 27 years ago at age 14. He was arrested and charged for the distribution of narcotics.
There was also a man who was sentenced to serve a term of four years to life imprisonment. On completion of four years he was deported.
In another case, there was a 62-year-old man who entered the US illegally over 40 years ago. Records show he was arrested and charged in 2001 with possession of narcotics. He was put on 2 years probation. He was re-arrested in January and deported.
A drug courier was also among the returned nationals. The woman left Guyana two years ago for the United States. She was arrested when she arrived after a quantity of cocaine was found in her possession. She was charged and sentenced to one year's imprisonment.
Another man left Guyana 21 years ago at age 16. At age 20 he was arrested and charged for possession of marijuana and was placed on five years probation.
He spent nine days in Guyana last year before he returned to America, where he was detained by immigration officials for non-appearance at a drug rehabilitation programme.
Meanwhile, there was the case of a man who left for Canada in 1989. Five years later he was arrested for assault but was only warned by police. Two years later he was charged for possession of narcotics and stolen goods. He was sentenced to serve a four-month sentence. The next year he was charged for trafficking in narcotics and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. He was off the police radar for two years until he was arrested and charged with assault causing actual bodily harm. He served five months imprisonment. He was again arrested in 2001 with possession of narcotics, for which he served a week in jail and deported.
People convicted for assault accounted for the next highest number of cases; the most significant being those returned from the US, 14 of the 17 references.
The remainder were convicted for a range of offences that included robbery, burglary, bribery and alien smuggling, domestic assault and drunk driving.
Last year, several hundred persons were deported for a variety of crimes and concerns were raised by the police over the possible criminal threat they posed.