Fishy bust nets US$5M cocaine
-grey snappers stuffed and stitched up
By Samantha Alleyne
Stabroek News
May 17, 2004
Some of the boxes of fish after the removal of the cocaine and CANU officers had repacked them. (Ken Moore photo)
Officers from the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) were yesterday hunting for a man who was attempting to smuggle around 50 kilogrammes of cocaine concealed in 60 boxes of frozen grey snappers on Saturday afternoon.
According to reports, the officers have since visited a city address which the man gave at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri when he checked-in the boxes containing the fish bound for New York on a Universal Airlines flight.
Stabroek News understands that a number of persons live at the address and it was described as a tenement yard. Checks made at other locations where the man resides also proved to be futile.
The fish was being shipped through a service located on Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York and sources yesterday said that CANU officers were tipped off that the cocaine was being sent out in the consignment of fish.
It was around 2 pm on Saturday afternoon when the man arrived at the airport and had the boxes taken through a customs inspection. It was about to be loaded onto the plane when one of the three CANU officers on duty intercepted it.
Four boxes were opened at the airport by the officers before the drugs were found and the 60 brown cartons were later taken to CANU's headquarters.
The suspect might have been tipped off of the officer's interception because when a search was made at the shed where exporters usually wait the man had disappeared.
According to sources CANU has sought the help of the Guyana Police Force in their bid to apprehend the exporter since it is suspected that the man will attempt to flee the jurisdiction. Police officers at the airport have been alerted as well as those at the various ports of exit and entry around the country.
The 49 kilogrammes and 60 grammes of cocaine found in the fish are said to have a street value of some US$5 million.
The cocaine was found in 18 of the 60 boxes and sources say that the exporter cut the sides of the fish, which were described as being large, dug out some of the entrails, placed the cocaine inside and then stitched it with fine twine.
CANU officers worked late into the night and early yesterday morning to complete checking all the boxes and after all of the cocaine was removed the fish was put back into the boxes and taped and taken to be stored so they could be produced as evidence in court.
The suspect is not a known exporter, according to sources, nor has his name come up in any previous drug investigation.
Sources pointed out that since the man is not a known exporter it might be easy to trace where he purchased the fish from and also the location he would have used to pack the cocaine. It was pointed out that this is a new and innovative way the exporter has used in his attempt to smuggle the cocaine out of the country.
Traffickers from Guyana have used a wide range of methods to export cocaine including in food, furniture, cricket bats and live reptiles. In recent months there have been interceptions in New York of several large shipments of drugs originating in Guyana. The US government is said to be on the verge of seeking the extradition of a number of Guyanese in connection with drug trafficking and money laundering.