Father and son in custody
The Customs Anti-narcotics Unit, CANU has issued wanted bulletins for sawmill owner Naraine Lall, motorcycle racer, Stephen Vieira and this was after businessman Tazim Gafoor was arrested by police on the West Coast of Demerara on Monday. Canu said the men will help them to complete their investigations into the multi-million-dollar cocaine bust at Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo, on Friday.
Race car driver, Nazim Gafoor is already in custody pending investigations.
Canu in a release stated that its ranks conducted a search on a truck at the parapet in front of the premises of one Akeem Mohamed at 227 Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo. That truck was laden with several pallets of 1×6 dressed lumber boards prepared for export to the USA. According to CANU several boards were drilled randomly and revealed a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine. The truck, its driver, and porters were escorted to CANU Head Quarters where a detailed search of the cargo was completed. The drugs totalled 84.986 kilograms of cocaine, equalling a landed US street value in excess of 550Million Guyana Dollars.
There are reports that CANU conducted several searches at the homes of Stephen Vieira and Naraine Lall but the men could not be located.
It was revealed by CANU that one Stephen Vieira is listed on the shipping documents as the representative of Naraine Lall the shipper. Naraine Lall based on CANU’s investigations thus far is allegedly out of the jurisdiction.
CANU said their Investigations revealed that a truck was hired to pick up and transport the lumber from Naraine Lall’s Sawmill at Lookout East Bank Essequibo, to the wharf at Georgetown. The porters and the truck driver that were detained on Friday were released last night. The men were assisting in investigations that revealed a well-planned web of participants CANU said.