Tranquilandia was located deep in the unkempt jungles of Colombia and consisted of eight airstrips, had its own electrical grid and water supply, and housed 19 laboratories dedicated solely to the manufacturing of cocaine. 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. s.parentNode.insertBefore(gcse, s); However, he added that on a smaller scale, the use of scrap metal to conceal outward bound drugs had been problematic for authorities worldwide. However, the record-breaking shipment was expected by law enforcement officials as it is suspected it left the port of Guyana after the drug gangs arrest in Belgium, with drug gangs unable to intercept it once at sea. 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. Guyanas strategic locationand corruption at its ports underpin the nations ongoing role as a crucial transit hub for cocaine headed across the Atlantic and beyond. The packages of cocaine weighed 307 pounds and carries an estimated street value of more than US$6.5 million. The dismantlement of the drug gang late in September led to the arrest and indictment of 22 people, with three people still in the Netherlands awaiting extradition. var gcse = document.createElement('script'); 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. Afghanistan's biggest drug problem is not hashish but opium. In Guyana, four suspects were arrested in connection with the shipment, according to the Guyanese Minister of Home Affairs. var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; An eighth crewmen charged, Aleksandar Kavaja, 27, of Montenegro, the ship electrician, previously pleaded guilty but has yet to be sentenced. Hidden inside seven shipping containers was 15,000kg of the illicit drug, one of the largest caches ever intercepted on US shores and a quantity that's almost "beyond comprehension", according to Patrick Trainor, a spokesman for the US Drug Enforcement Agency in Philadelphia. The GRA recently terminated the contracts for a number of container scanner specialists, while not linking the dismissals to any of the international drug busts with ties to Guyana. Log in for full access to stabroeknews.com. (function() { He added that robust counter-narcotics measures taken by nearby nations had resulted in a balloon effect, pushing traffickers to establish new routes in Guyana. 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. 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. 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. Unfortunately not a Latino spinoff of Portlandia,Tranquilandiawas the name of one of the largest cocaine processing laboratories in history, owned by historys most infamous drug lordPablo Escobar. Credited as the biggest drug bust in Mexicos history, Mexican authorities seized 105 tons of marijuana in Tijuana. hydraulic steel doors, elevators, a wooden staircase, what sounds like the most boring drug seizure of all time, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Amount Seized: 2.8 tons of various drugsValue: $1.5 billion. The warehouses manager, James Romero McTague, was eventually sentenced to life in prison without parole. There was no arrest on the local front in relation to this bust. 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. Guyana and World News and news from the Guyanese Diaspora. Law enforcement sources told NBC10 in 2019 that the cocaine was not meant for Philadelphia, but instead for the Netherlands and France. gcse.type = 'text/javascript'; 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. Reports out of Jamaica indicate that the cocaine was found in two of six transshipment containers that arrived on the island from Guyana en route to Haiti and China. Australia is a pretty wild place. At the end of the day, they confiscated over a billion dollars from Escobar. 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. Posts about Largest drug bust in the world written by guyaneseonline. classi_advt@yahoo.com or gnnladvertisingdepartment@gmail.com, Chronicles of a Chronic Guyana Chronicler, Patrons already flocking to get back into the gyms, Relief for Victoria, Nabaclis and Golden Grove farmers. According to the State Departments narcotics control report, Colombian cocaine is typically smuggled to Venezuela and onward to Guyana by sea or air. Please support our mission investigating organized crime. It was like Disney Land, but for coke heads. German investigators reportedly received a confidential tip about the drug smuggling operation and began a thorough search of the container yard. Maxwell Barna is a contributor for Supercompressor and definitely didn't start googling Mexican Drug Lords' Twitter handles after filing this story. The Enterprise We respect your privacy. Stock picture. This is considered the highest seizure of drugs when compared to the previous year which amounted to 536 kg (1, 181) pounds. gcse.async = true; Only one active session is allowed per subscriber. This was the largest drug bust in the 230-year history of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol arm of the Department of Homeland Security. They discovered more than 1.5 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a container of rice arriving aboard a ship from Guyana. Officers walked by a truck they suspected to be part of a huge heroin ring and sawin plain sighta brick of heroin just hanging out of an open box. That is, until 1984, when DEA agents and the Colombian National Police raided the complex and shut it down. Amount Seized: 32 tons of marijuanaValue: $65 million. Amount Seized: 27 tons of cocaineValue: $500 million. The cocaine that was found in a 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. His body was found dead in a Jeep Cherokee a few years later. WebPolice in Laos have made the biggest single drug seizure ever recorded in Asia, according to the United Nations. Guyana Call for Help Shows Limited Capacity to Combat Drug Threat, International Narcotics Control Strategy report, US, Italy Arrests Show Cocaine Trade's Evolution, dismantled a billion-dollar drug smuggling operation, Colombia's New Security Policy Faces Challenges on Environmental Aims, Colombias Coca Market Crash Unlikely to Impact Cocaine Trade, InSight Crime Cited in OAS, CARICOM Reports, Cocaine and Marijuana Fuel Ever-Higher Homicides in Costa Rica, Corruption Takes Center Stage in Paraguay Presidential Election, In Lara, Venezuela, Criminal 'Colectivos' Control Public Services, Cocaine, Crack, Meth, MDMA - Europe Drugs Report Paints Grim Picture, Two Coca Regions in Peru, One Cocaine Shipment to Europe, Modifying Planes to Carry Drugs - Another Criminal Speciality in Colombia, InSight Crime Staff Cited as Experts by International Media, Media Looks to InSight Crime for Ecuador Knowledge, The Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory Continues to Be a Benchmark in the Region. The Guyana Police Force revealed that a total of 761.28 kilogrammes (1678 pounds) of cannabis was seized between January to October 2022. Corruption at Guyana ports facilitates the concealing of drugs in cargo headed to Europe. 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. By News Source Guyana on November 5, 2020. The extradition may signal that prosecutors are concerned about Guyanese smuggling operations. The statistics show a downward trend from the year 2020 to 2022.. Landmark cocaine seizures made in Belgium and Germany this year have been linked directly to containers that arrived in Europe from Guyana. WebBelgian prosecutors have dealt a new blow to a recently disbanded drug gang led by a former Belgian police chief after announcing the largest-ever overseas drug bust "in the Guyana. 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 discovery was made at the Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL) on Monday afternoon. The bust also yielded three guns, two assault rifles, and $85,000 in cash. James Singh, the head of Guyana's Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), told InSight Crime the nation is caught in the crosshairs of drug trafficking networks operating betweensupply anddemand countries. 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. s.parentNode.insertBefore(gcse, s); How did they find it so deep inside of Colombias dangerous jungles? Published: Apr. The drug may alsotransit land borders and the river network shared by Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname before it reaches Guyana.
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