GEORGETOWN: Guyana is partnering with the United States in a number of initiatives including oil and gas management; and while there are further avenues of cooperation to be explored, U.S. Embassy in Georgetown’s top official, Bryan Hunt, is confident that Guyana’s efforts in countering the trade of illicit substances has yielded great results. The disclosure by Hunt at the U.S. Embassy’s reception at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown, marking the country’s 239th Independence, comes even as Guyana sees a number of increased drug seizures, worth millions of U.S. dollars, at the country’s ports.
“Guyana’s law enforcement agencies have already made significant seizures in the last year,” Hunt told the gathering, “[including] finding the self-propelled semi-submersible in the interior and putting that shipyard out of business.”
Hunt charged the upsurge in seizures to the increased sharing of information between law enforcement agencies in Guyana and the United States.
“I am confident that despite the criticism of sceptics, expanded cooperation between the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Guyanese Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit [CANU], and Serious Organised Crimes Unit [SOCU] will disrupt and ultimately dismantle the drug flow through Guyana.”
Only last month, the U.S. official met with Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams at the AG’s Chambers, where improving Guyana’s criminal justice system was one of the issues addressed.
At that meeting, Hunt plugged the benefit of collaboration between Guyana and the U.S. through the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI). The CBSI was formed following the commitment of President Barack Obama in 2009 at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.
The initiative, according to the U.S. State Department website, is aimed at substantially reducing illicit trafficking, increasing public safety and security, and promoting social justice.
Guyana has benefited from the CBSI through the provision of patrol boats to the Guyana Defence Force, which aids in this country’s fight against transnational organised crime on Guyana’s territorial waters.
Similarly, through the CBSI, the U.S. DEA has provided assistance in training of security personnel, and the provision of equipment to better the effectiveness of Guyana’s authorities at the country’s ports of entry.
With the recent passage of the amended Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill in the National Assembly, Guyana will benefit from another element of the CBSI, which speaks to tackling organised crime, specially money laundering.
Hunt told reporters following that high-level meeting that while the DEA operated previously in Guyana out of its Trinidad and Tobago unit, “The DEA, at this stage, is in the process of identifying full-time personnel to be here over longer periods of time.”
He said too that local agencies seeking to benefit from greater collaboration and training under the CBSI are the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the Serious Organised Crime Unit (SOCU). “I think it’s fair to say that since the DEA began their operations here, we’ve certainly seen a significant uptick in the number of seizures that have happened at airports.”
While the AML legislation sets the mandate for agencies like the SOCU, Minister of State Joseph Harmon, in an invited comment, told this publication some time ago that the agency had begun its work out of its Camp Road, Eve Leary office.
