– Ambassador Halloway
While positing that a lot more work needs to be done, former United States Ambassador to Guyana, Perry Holloway, has lauded efforts by drug enforcement agencies, both local and foreign, towards trying to put a dent in the illegal narcotics trade in Guyana.
Being positioned on the South American continent with strong ties to the Caribbean region, Guyana has long been identified as a transshipment point for major drug trafficking activities. It was against this backdrop that the US established an office of its Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Georgetown.
Ambassador Holloway had played a critical role in the setting up of the DEA office in Guyana, which was done in February 2016 – less than five months after his arrival in Guyana.
During a recent interview with a group of local journalists, prior to his departure after serving his three-year tenure, Ambassador Holloway asserted that it was too early to gauge the success of the US’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Guyana but noted that more positive results can be expected in the coming years.
“…The investigation of narcotics crime and the related crime of money laundering, these investigations take years and not weeks or months. So if you’re going to bring down an organisation or a kingpin type person, you don’t do that in a week or two weeks. The DEA, I think, has done a great job here, they are not policemen, there are liaison; they are here to share information, develop information, talk to people… Now after three years with the DEA here, we are beginning to develop some stuff. But I think in the next two or three years, you are going to see a lot more positive actions coming from your law enforcement entities and them cooperating with international law enforcement,” the US Diplomat stated.
One of those development that the former Ambassador spoke about is the arrest of Guyanese hotelier; Shervington Lovell aka “Big Head”, who was arrested in Jamaica last month for narcotics trafficking and recently extradited to the US where he faced additional charges. Lovell’s arrest, the Diplomat posited, was as a result of collaboration between the DEA Office and local law enforcement agencies such as the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU).
“It just so happens he was arrested in Jamaica but there was a lot of reasons for that. He was meeting up with some other guys so it was a way to get everybody in one place at one time. That has been a small success story. I must say that I have seen no evidence that transshipment has gotten worse since I have been here. It is illegal so they don’t tell you how much is shipping through or not shipping through [but] I must tell you that it hasn’t ended; there is still drugs shipping through Guyana, there is drugs shipping through every country in South America.”
Holloway went on to note that local authorities are working hard in trying to do what they can with the limited resources they have. Against this backdrop, he posited that needs to be done to curb narco-trafficking activities especially those that uses the country as a transshipment point.
“Guyana is so large and so under populated. I mean there are so many places you can [go] in and out if you have the money and resources. And these guys are well funded and they don’t have to play by the rules. I think, my gut feeling is that things have gotten a little better as far as the big, big shipments going through Guyana.”
Asked by the Guyana Times International whether the DEA Office has been able to tap into the drug network that it suspected was in Guyana, the former Ambassador explained that while they knew of certain individuals and organisations operating in Guyana, this is hard to prove.
“[But] by coming here, we gathered a lot more information on those organisations and individuals. We have been working closely and can actually share information that we have with the police and CANU. I think the next three years you are going to see a little bit of an acceleration of activity. Not because people were not working hard, but eventually this information reached a point where all of a sudden, it can be tied together and something can be done,” he stated.
