Last Updated on Thursday, 22 May 2025, 21:56 by Writer
A Brazilian businessman is expected to appear in court on Friday in connection with the seizure of 40 ounces of raw gold that police believed he was preparing to smuggle to neighbouring Brazil, Head of the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), Deputy Commissioner Fazil Karimbaksh told Demerara Waves Online News.
He was quoted in a GPF statement as saying that SOCU agents disrupted an alleged illegal smuggling operation before the gold could be moved across the border.
Police said Osmil Da Silva was arrested at his business place, Filhao Shop, in a major intelligence-led joint operation conducted in Central Mahdia.
The “substantial quantity of raw gold” worth GY$27.7 million, equipment, documents and over GY$17 million in cash were seized during the operation, police said.
Police said that latest success was part of the continued efforts by law enforcement agencies to disrupt the illicit gold trade and safeguard Guyana’s mineral resources.
“The outcome of yesterday’s operation reinforces the seriousness with which national security agencies are responding to illegal mining and smuggling activities,” police added.
This incident also adds to a growing list of cases involving Brazilian nationals operating unlawfully within Guyana’s gold-mining regions.
In March 2025, two Brazilian nationals were arrested in Lethem, Region 9, during an operation that led to the seizure of a large quantity of gold and over Gy$26 million in cash.
In a separate operation in April, two more Brazilian nationals, along with a Cuban and a Guyanese, were taken into custody after authorities confiscated more than GY$30 million in gold and GY$31 million in cash.
The increasing frequency of these incidents has raised serious concerns about the scale and organisation of transnational gold smuggling networks operating within Guyana’s borders,” police added.
