Hamilton, Prospects bright for insurance companies in Guyana Prime Minister. However, the hunt continues for wanted shipper, Marlon Primo of Lot 701 Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara (ECD), and of 69 Atlantic Village, ECD. Amount Seized: 21.4 tons of cocaineValue: $6.9 billion (roughly $13 billion today). He said the local agency has been in touch with law enforcement officers in Belgium and the two sides are working together. Huge meth, fentanyl lab The U.S. Coast Guard seized over 42,000 pounds of cocaine in 2007 from a Panamanian vessel, the Gatun, about 20 miles off the countrys coast. Only one active session is allowed per subscriber. Van Den Berghe revealed, in this case, the vast quantity of cocaine exported would have likely been detected prior to its departure from Guyana. Officers recovered another 29 pounds of heroin from an apartment, as well as $75,000 in cash they found in a nearby car (again, in plain sight). WebNovember 6, 2020 Law enforcement officials in Belgium are probing the discovery of 11.5 tons of cocaine, which was unearthed in a container of scrap metal from Guyana and s.parentNode.insertBefore(gcse, s); So-called drug mules carried cocaine produced in Brazilian jungle camps to Guyana, and then boarded flights to the United States or Europe, in a bid to avoid transiting through Venezuela or Colombia, where authorities had enhanced their efforts to tackle drug smuggling. We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. The nations porous borders with major drug trafficking nations -- including Venezuela and Brazil -- make it an ideal jumping-off point for smugglers moving cocaine to the United States, Canada, Europe, West African transit nations and the Caribbean. Belgian police seize 11.5 tons of cocaine in shipment from Guyana var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; 55 woman says still being threatened by attacker. The 20 Largest Drug Seizures in World History - Money Inc The police have stated that the huge stash of drugs belonged to Dario Antonia Usuga, the chief of Colombias largest drug-trafficking gang, the Gulf Clan and Colombias most Landmark cocaine seizures made in Belgium and Germany this year have been linked directly to containers that arrived in Europe from Guyana. The next morning, the Santa Barbara Sheriffs Office announced the 34 arrests and the seizure of 3,164 pounds of methamphetamine the biggest drug bust in the countys history, and one of the largest ever in the nation. world Prosecutors allege Nebblett recruited couriers in Guyana to take commercial flights to the United States with baggage containing "cocaine ladened shoes. Mr. Singh said the information sharing between the law enforcement authorities in Jamaica and Guyana has been flowing. This is the third international drug bust in recent times linked to Guyana. Following the record-breaking drug bust on Wednesday, three others were arrested, including one person who is facing extradition to Belgium from the Netherlands. WebA major drug bust on a container ship that has been described as the largest ever overseas drug bust in the world, has been traced to Guyana. The reports stated that three police officers, a port manager, and a lawyer were among some 20 other criminals arrested as part of an operation targeting the well-structured criminal organisation suspected of orchestrating large and regular drug shipments from South America to Belgium. var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; Guyana sees a high quantity of containers carrying metal fragments leave its ports each year. On June 19th, 2019, federal authorities seized The Gayane was scheduled to sail on to Europe, but U.S. Customs officers detained the crew and ship in Philadelphia after making the bust June 18, 2019. The cartel responsible for all of it, undoubtedly taking a page out of the Spanish subtitled version of The Shawshank Redemption, dug an 1,800-foot underground tunnel from a building in Tijuana, Mexico, to a similar building in San Diego, California. Narcotics Police in Jamaica are probing the discovery of scores of packages with more than 300 pounds of cocaine which were found in containers that arrived in the island from Guyana. WebDilogo, a digital US military magazine, reported that at the end of 2012, Malaysian authorities had intercepted a staggering $7.1 million worth of cocaine in sealed tins of In a clear-cut case of How Not to Ever, Ever Smuggle Drugs From Mexico into the U.S., federal agents in California seized 15 tons of marijuana at the the U.S.-Mexico border, completely unhidden in the back of a tractor trailer. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. So theres that. RACE and Society How secrets affectfamilies, GUYANA: Walk with me in Subryanville Fullvideo, GUYANA 2023 Easter on the seawall Video, GUYANA: Unfinished Genesis: a discussion with Dennis de Caires and StanleyGreaves, CHANGE: Capitalism Hits Home: All Empires Rise and Fall, The US Is No Exception-video, GUYANA: Governing Georgetown Editorial By StabroekNews, Guyana SPEAKS Town Hall Meeting with Rosalinda Rasul 11 Apr 2023 17:00 20:00BST, GUYANA: IMBOTERO RESEARCH CENTER : Merging CoastalCommunities, EUROPE: Ghost Towns: The Silent Depopulation of EasternEurope, GUYANA: Walk with me on Hadfield Street. The shipment of cocaine was disguised as scrap metal and placed inside a steel container which was, in turn, packed into a sea container and loaded into a transatlantic vessel. The other five crewmen previously sentenced and serving time in prison are Bosko Markovic, 39, of Montenegro, the ships chief officer; Vladimir Penda, 27, of Montenegro, the fourth engineer; Stefan Bojevic, 29, of Serbia, the assistant reeferman; Fonofaavae Tiasaga, 29, of Samoa, an able seaman; and Laauli Pulu, 34, of Samoa, an ordinary seaman. Durasevic was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, and Ilic was sentenced to seven years in prison. drug bust Web1.San Francisco is home to the crown of the world largest ever recorded drugs bust. More Crewmen from Cocaine Ship' Bust at Philadelphia Port Sentenced Old Jet Magazines - from 1950 onwards - updated, Guyana SPEAKS - Guyanese Food as a Unifying Force -30th April at 3.30pm- Zoom, GUYANESE AUTHORS: Published Books Featured in Guyanese Online, Guyana: British Guiana 1959 to 1961- with 2009 updates - photos, Guyana SPEAKS Guyanese Food as a Unifying Force -30th April at 3.30pm Zoom, Harry Belafonte: Singer and civil rights activist dies aged96, Rockefeller Foundation Fireside Chat with the Prime Minister of Barbados and UKs Minister ofFCDO, MEDICAL: Teens Mental Health By LINDSEY TANNER and ANGIEWANG. In observance of todays Labour Day celebration, President Dr Irfaan Ali said that this day reminds of the legacy of workers which can only Guyana is participating in the 2023 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. The cocaine that was found in a Georgetown, GUYANA Climbing the Kanuku Mountains Video, USA: A Nation Of Enemies Cannot Stand By: LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTTIV, GUYANA: US Ambassador Lynch speaks: It is a long large mouthful The GHK Lall Column, Demographics: Russias Population Nightmare Is Going To Get Even Worse TheEconomist, GUYANA: NOSTALGIA: Brown Betty Restaurant Georgetown By GeoffBurrowes. Federal prosecutors had reported that this was the largest overseas drug bust ever, worldwide with an estimated street value of 900 million or US$1.06 billion. It was reported that counter-narcotics prosecutors tracked the transatlantic journey of 11.5 tonnes of cocaine from Guyana, on the northeastern coast of South Yeah, well go ahead and imagine 30 of them on a scale, all at the same time. BOGOTA, Colombia Police in Colombia have discovered 12 tonnes of cocaine believed to have a street value $660 million in the countrys biggest ever drugs bust. Deutsche Welle, Germanys international broadcaster, reported that it was among the largest quantities of cocaine ever seized in Hamburg. The container, from Germany, housed 1,917 kilograms of MDMA and 849 kilograms of crystal meth. Bel Air Park, ! (which roughly translates to, Im going to get high, dude!) stamped underneath it. Man found dead in Quamina St. Hotel; Woman jumps from room window after Police summoned, GPSU hammers Government on treatment of public servants and political interference in public service, Ramotar and Duncan call for end of division within trade union movement, Teen boys die in separate drowning incidents in Berbice and Linden, Sheriff General Hospital aims to provide highest quality of affordable care, Caribbean Legal Community must shape up to meet technological age and new frontiers of electronic justice, Former Chief of Staff encourages more youths to enlist in the military, Bar Association not supportive of National Intelligence Bill; Flags threat to Attorney-Client privilege, Govt. Authorities seized over 21 tons of cocainethe largest amount everfrom a California warehouse that was said to have belonged to reputed drug lord Rafael Munoz Talavera. Web61K views 2 years ago #NBC #NBCLA A tip from an informant led to a record drug bust. The most extensive database on organized crime in the Americas. We have established and reported that the images of the scanned container were deleted which meant that staff members were involved it is now up to the Guyana Revenue Authority to launch an internal probe to determine what went wrong, Singh noted in a telephone interview on Tuesday. The cocaine was found disguised as scrap metal and placed inside a steel container which was in turn packed into a sea container and loaded into a transatlantic vessel. (DOMINICK REUTER/AFP via Getty Images), Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. var cx = '014742376270991751669:2oy3vex5f7k'; The 11.5 tonnes of cocaine reportedly originated from Guyana and was intercepted upon arrival at the Port of Antwerp, Belgium. The report added that drug traffickers exploit the countrys poorly monitored ports, remote airstrips, intricate river networks, porous land borders, as well as a permissive environment created as a result of corruption.". alarmed over large cocaine shipment from Guyana -says Home Affairs Minister, Man who travelled from Guyana busted with 44 cocaine pellets in stomach at Jamaica Airport, Jamaica busts over 100 pounds of cocaine in rice container from Guyana, Recently released cocaine convict held for 22 lbs cocaine bust at CJIA, Unclear whether container linked to cocaine bust in Germany was scanned before leaving Guyana. 2022 saw largest drug busts for police force, Govt to table two bills in House ahead of CFATF evaluation, A MESSAGE FROM THE PNCR ON THE OCCASION OF LABOUR DAY 2023, Using a 300-megawatts solar power plant instead of Gas-to-Shore Project an impossible proposal Jagdeo, A MESSAGE FROM THE PPP ON THE OCCASION OF LABOUR DAY 2023, Norton disagrees with British envoy on use of bloated voters list, Police Force says Christmas surveillance strategy to thwart as much criminal activity as possible. According to the State Departments narcotics control report, Colombian cocaine is typically smuggled to Venezuela and onward to Guyana by sea or air. The Guyana Chronicle reported that two of the suspects in custody were customs officers on duty as the load was scanned before it left for Belgium. gcse.type = 'text/javascript'; Cocaine Cowboy (1989) Amount Seized: 21.4 tons of cocaine Value: $6.9 billion (roughly $13 billion today) WebThe United Nations drug agency says cocaine production increased by a third between 2020 and 2021, which was a record high and the biggest year-to-year increase since 2016. Now take that image and fill it with hashishweeds gnarlier cousinand youll have an idea of just how much of the stuff Afghani police forces confiscated in June of 2008. The cocaine was found in a container of rice that was destined for Haiti and a container of logs that was heading to China. WebThe Brussel Times Belgian prosecutors have dealt a new blow to a recently disbanded drug gang led by a former Belgian police chief after announcing the largest-ever DEA Announces Biggest Meth Bust in alarmed over large cocaine shipment from Guyana -says Home Affairs Minister, CANU, DEA and Belgian Police exchange info on Scrap Iron drug probe, Local Scrap metal shipper wanted for 23,000-pound cocaine bust in Belgium, Guyana alerts Interpol on search for shipper in scrap metal cocaine bust, Local probe in Belgium drug bust continues to draw a blank, CANU sifting through over 50,000 scanner images from drug container shipment. He offered no additional details on the local probe. The Largest Drug Busts in History | Banyan Philadelphia You can also post comments, and manage your email subscription. But when youre spending over $1,000 a week on rubber bands just to wrap your stacks and stacks of money, does losing a billion of it really matter? Region 4 Round 2 matchups to conclude tomorrow as the Speakers Regional Youth Debating Competition 2023 continues. The dead boy has been identified as 14-year-old A young teenage boy is now dead after he drowned while swimming at a creek in Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice). At the end of the day, they confiscated over a billion dollars from Escobar. The warehouses manager, James Romero McTague, was eventually sentenced to life in prison without parole. Bob Van Den Berghe, coordinator at the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) and World Customs Organization's Container Control Programme, told InSight Crime that while the country has access to scanning equipment, such machines have not always been used in an optimal way to detect illicit loads. Website Solution/Maintenance by, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Worlds only known white giraffe fitted with tracker to deter poachers, Govt calls for recommendations on AML/CFT, Compliance Commission bills before tabling, President Ali calls for a united labour movement to further advance workers rights, Essequibo River will to be a massive hub for tourism Ali, Govt taking scientific approach to crime-fighting AG, Let us forge a new era of relations President Ali to labour movement, Guyana participating in 2023 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, Over 7,000 labour inspections conducted to date Min. The Brussels Times had reported counter-narcotics prosecutors as saying that they tracked the transatlantic journey of the cocaine from Guyana. According to the Jamaica Observer newspaper, the drug was found in two of six containers that arrived on the island from Guyana en route to Haiti and China. The United States has consistently worked with Guyana to combat drug trafficking between the two nations. The bust also yielded three guns, two assault rifles, and $85,000 in cash. You know those double-decker buses in London? Amount Seized: 15 tons of marijuanaValue: $19 million. With regard to the Forces eradication efforts Blanhum said, Sixty-one and half acres of Cannabis was destroyed for the year 2022. This is considered the highest seizure of drugs when compared to the previous year which amounted to 536 kg (1, 181) pounds. Amount Seized: 27 tons of cocaineValue: $500 million. Officers intercepted a truck carrying 55 million methamphetamine The drug may alsotransit land borders and the river network shared by Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname before it reaches Guyana. The feds got suspicious when they x-rayed the truck, whose driver listed its contents as mattresses and cushions, but saw nothing that looked even remotely like mattresses, and instead found 15 tons of drugs. Six arrested during Pomeroon River drug bust - Kaieteur News The crewmen loaded the drugs on the MSC Gayane after 20 small boats pulled alongside off Peru, authorities said previously. Complicated Reality of Santa Barbara A popular method for placing drugs inside containers at the ports is known as gancho ciego, or rip-on rip-off," in which containers are tampered with at sea or as they await export. Australia is a pretty wild place. A pilot traveling from Colombia to Montreal carrying $2.7 Billion in cocaine was caught by The shipment which was described as the largest overseas drug bust ever, worldwide, was seized upon its arrival at the Port of Antwerp. In total police seized around $450,000 worth of meth, $155,000 worth of ecstasy, $230,000 worth of cannabis and $57,475 in cash. Cocaine use and overdose deaths are on the rise in America after years of decline as production has surged to record levels in Colombia, the source of about 90pc of the US supply. A FREE roundup of top news from Guyana you might otherwise miss. Some two decades later, the nation was increasingly used by criminal networks to smuggle drugs to Africa and Southeast Asia. The dismantlement of the drug gang in late September led to the arrest and indictment of 22 people, with three people still in the Netherlands awaiting extradition. According to a TIME report, there were a few cushions cramped into the opposite end of the trailer, right behind the 1,296 packages of pot. No one has been arrested in Jamaica in connection with the bust. A recent string of high-profile interceptions targeting international drug trafficking operations has confirmed Guyana remains a crucial transit point for cocaine headed to the United States and across the Atlantic. Dilogo, a digital US military magazine, reported that at the end of 2012, Malaysian authorities had intercepted a staggering $7.1 million worth of cocaine in sealed tins of coconut milk shipped from Guyana. 2022 saw largest drug busts for police force | Guyana Standard The packages of cocaine weighed 307 pounds and carries an estimated street value of more than US$6.5 million. Commander Domenico Napolitano, head of the financial police for the city of Jamaica says intercepts big cocaine shipment from Guyana CRIME: Belgian police seize 11.5 tons of cocaine in shipment from Guyana. (Advertising Department) Guyanas Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework will be undergoing its fourth round of mutual evaluation in September 2023 by As Guyana joins the rest of the world in observing Labour Day, President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, in his Labour Day Message, said there A tourism masterplan for the Essequibo River, which features several tourism stops that have attracted domestic and international interest, is being completed. Belgian Prosecutors are also linking the bust to a former Belgian Police Chief who was the head of a recently disbanded drug gang in the European country. The extradition may signal that prosecutors are concerned about Guyanese smuggling operations. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article. Amount Seized: 261 tons of hashishValue: $400 million. Guyanese officials have benefited from extra training provided by the US-funded Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, aiming to help authorities in Guyana intercept cocaine flooding into the nation, particularly from Colombia. Well send you our daily roundup of all our favorite stories from across the site, from travel to food to shopping to entertainment. Most logical drug smugglers would make an effort to oh, I dont now, conceal the drugs they were transporting (see the above entries), but these geniuses just took the cocaine, stuffed it into cargo containers, and placed them front-and-center on the top deck of the ship. (function() { BREAKING: Belgium finds 11.5 Tons of Cocaine in Guyana scrap And with all that sweet loot, infamous drug dealers make even more infamous purchases, like incredible mansions, rare sports cars, and exotic pet trifectas. Singh, the head of the anti-narcotics unit in Guyana, said authorities intend to adopt a multi-agency approach to help fight such corruption. If you were blowing lines in the 1980s (read: everyone in the 80s), it probably came from him. When the container was examined at the citys customs office, investigators revealed that they discovered 47 large packages of cocaine hidden between sacks of rice from Guyana. It carried an estimated street value of 900 million Euros. biggest drug bust The Guyana Police Force revealed that a total of 761.28 kilogrammes (1678 pounds) of cannabis was seized between January to October 2022. Recent drug busts overseas with Guyana reportedly being listed as the point of origin for confiscated narcotics, is a signal that the country has returned to being a narco State, says Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon. If theres one thing Ive learned while writing this article, its that people who deal in drugs are really good at leaving their drugs around in places they can be found. According to media reports out of Belgium, the Counternarcotics prosecutors there have tracked the transatlantic journey of the 11.5-tons of cocaine from Guyana. Five other crewmen were previously sentenced to prison time after pleading guilty to helping load the massive amount of cocaine on the ship as it sailed from South America to Philadelphia. But according to Singh, investigations have so far revealed that the huge quantity of the drug was imported to Guyana from another country after which it was stockpiled and then loaded into the container and ultimately onto the vessel which reportedly left Guyana in September. Connecticut Police have apprehended a St. Johnsbury drug and shooting suspect on a murder charge after being released in Caledonia Superior Court in 2021. In that case, it was suspected that the cocaine might have been placed in the rice shipment after it left Guyana and during its many stops before it reached Germany. It is believed to be the second-biggest seizure of cocaine in American history, behind only a 1989 cache seized in Los Angeles. Biggest Drug Busts Around The World - Thrillist By News Source Guyana on November 5, 2020. largest Eleven people were arrested following a tense, Hollywood-esque, pre-dawn shootout with Mexican authorities, which ended in the seizure of 10,000 packages of pot. On November 5, Belgiums Federal Police announced in a tweet that some 11.5 tons of cocaine in a scrap metal shipment had been seized at the Port of Antwerp. The massive 261-ton stockpile would have netted roughly $400 million worth of profits, $14 million of which would have gone directly to the Taliban. Amount Seized: 14 tons of cocaineValue: $1 billion. Between January 1 and November 13, 2022, a total of 41 persons were charges for trafficking cocaine and cannabis. Continue reading , Enter your email address to follow and get all blog entries, Guyana and World News and news from the Guyanese Diaspora, CRIME: Belgian police seize 11.5 tons of cocaine in shipment fromGuyana, CRIME: Belgian police seize 11.5 tons of cocaine in shipment from Guyana, GUYANESE AUTHORS: Published Books Featured in GuyaneseOnline, Dmitri Allicock Oh Beautiful Guyana Blog sponsored by GuyaneseOnline, Peter Halder Blog sponsored by GuyaneseOnline, RECIPES From Guyana and the Caribbean - From Guyana Outpost archive, Guyana History: The house with ninety-nine windows, Five-star gated community being built at Providence. gcse.async = true; A recent report on drug trafficking and consumption in Europe highlights the acceleration of existing trends and the emergence of. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The mafias planned to smuggle cocaine from Guyana to a port in Calabria, underlining how powerful criminal groups have been drawn tothe Latin American nation when developing new trafficking routes. There was no arrest on the local front in relation to this bust. How did they find it so deep inside of Colombias dangerous jungles? As the sentences for the illegal conduct in this case continue to happen, they serve as a reminder that drug smuggling operations will be uncovered one way or another, Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams. Canadians Smuggling in 2018 95 kilogram of Cocaine- $21 Million Canadians Melina They discovered more than 1.5 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a container of rice arriving aboard a ship from Guyana. InSight Crime looks at Guyanas decisive role as a transit hub on drug trafficking routes linking Latin America to lucrative markets for cocaine. Charges stayed in one of Ontario's largest Mob busts after alleged illegal conduct by investigators. Maxwell Barna is a contributor for Supercompressor and definitely didn't start googling Mexican Drug Lords' Twitter handles after filing this story. In November 2011, DEA agents busted one of the biggest U.S.-Mexico border drug-smuggling operations in recent history. gcse.src = 'https://cse.google.com/cse.js?cx=' + cx; Crime Chief and Head of the Criminal Investigations Department, Wendell Blanhum during the launching of the Forces Christmas Policing Plan at the Officers Mess Hall on Tuesday said that intelligence-led operations and the hard work of ranks all over Guyana were attributing factors for the success this year.