Guyana asking US for info on local connections to Italy-New York drug mafia

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 20:59 by GxMedia

President Donald Ramotar on Wednesday announced that government would ask the United States (US) for information about local connections to the New York-Italian Mafia that was involved in trafficking cocaine to Italy.

US Ambassador Brent Hardt said all the information so far that has been publicly released is with the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Guyanese law enforcement agencies could request help from their American counterparts. “Always with law enforcement there is a formal process for requesting that from law enforcement if there is going to be an investigation here. The government knows what that process is so if we get a request, we’ll respond to it,” he told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com).

Addressing the Commissioning Parade for the Standard Officers’ Course #46 , Ramotar said he has asked Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee to seek international help to go after local connections. “I have directed the Minister of Home Affairs to write to the United States to ask them to give us the information that they probably have and to extend to them our commitment, our full cooperation to fighting these and bringing any of these to justice in our country. Guyana must not be a safe haven for any of these types of criminals,” said the Commander-in-Chief.

Top Guyanese law enforcement agents earlier Wednesday told DemWaves  that their organisations have not been contacted or involved in Tuesday’s arrest of 17 persons in New York and Italy who are allegedly connected to the Italian Mafia-like cocaine syndicate.

Foreign news reports have named a Guyanese canning company that being used by members of the Mexican drug cartel that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said was operating in Guyana. The FBI said those arrested had planned to export 500 kilogrammes of cocaine worth US$1 billion in pineapples and frozen fish to Italy.