Belgian cocaine bust…

EXPLOSIVE devices set up as a trap were found at a house raided by the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the Guyana Police Force recently, as investigations continue into a huge cocaine ‘bust’ made in Belgium on a shipment of scrap metal which left Guyana’s shores in September.
This was confirmed on Monday by Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn, who said the drug shipment would have entailed several months of planning and preparation, and as such CANU and the Police will continue to raid a number of houses.

“I am aware that care was taken to enter a particular house, and there appeared to be a rigged-up explosive arrangement at the normal entrance to that house. The issue is being reviewed, too. The house is in Region Four,” the Home Affairs Minister said, adding:
“We are extremely alarmed at the fact of the shipment; at the fact of it escaping, or being allowed to pass through the surveillance system, in terms of container scanner, container checks, and all those things in relation to the matter.”

At the time of the interview on Monday morning, Minister Benn said that four suspects had already been interviewed, and there is a warrant out for the local shipper, one Marlon Primo of 701 Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara (ECD), and Lot 69, Atlantic Ville, also on the East Coast.
“Of course, this activity could not have happened overnight; it had to be in preparation and planning for a long period of time, and it would have taken quite a bit of time to plan and do the logistics, and to compromise persons and fooling others, too, in respect of making the shipment,” Minister Benn said.

The Guyana Chronicle was reliably informed that CANU will be offering Primo protection and security, since he has expressed fear for his safety.
On Saturday last, investigators interrogated customs officers about the absence of images of the shipping container, in which cargo listed as scrap metal was found.
It was also discovered that the ship carrying the container had stopped in Guadeloupe for a few days, before making the onward journey to Belgium, and so CANU is now trying to ascertain whether the seals on the container are the same ones it left Guyana with.

The 11.5 tonnes of cocaine were neatly packed in a safe inside the container, which was then covered with scrap metal.
The United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Belgian authorities are collaborating on the find.
Counter-narcotics prosecutors say they had tracked the trans-Atlantic journey of the cocaine from Guyana, on the north-eastern coast of South America, and seized it upon its arrival at the Belgian port of entry in Antwerp.

The catch is “the largest overseas drug bust ever, worldwide,” federal prosecutors are quoted as telling the Belgian media, and that the estimated street value of the drug load is €900 million.
Three police officers, a port manager, and a lawyer were among some 20 persons arrested as part of the operation targeting the “well-structured” criminal organisation suspected of orchestrating large and “regular” drug shipments from South America to Belgium.