DEA won’t be kicking down doors – Amb Holloway

Last Updated on Friday, 6 November 2015, 20:26 by GxMedia

US Ambassador Perry Holloway has affirmed that while plans for the establishment of a permanent Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Office in Guyana, the DEA will not be coming to take over the anti-narco fight in Guyana.

Holloway made the statement at a press conference on Friday where an agreement between the US and Guyana Government was signed for an additional 350,000 for anti-narcotics efforts under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative.

“The DEA is coming here in a technical assistance advisor position, they are not policemen in Guyana they will not be kicking down doors,” said Holloway.

He stressed that the DEA will play more of an advisory role in Guyana, giving local law enforcement information that may lead to drug busts and the thwarting of other crimes.

He said that narcotic activities has linkages to other crimes and if the local law enforcement is able to tackle that, then it would holistically be taking away from the root causes of crime.  

The DEA office will be permanently staffed as early as December, with the outer limits being February.

Meanwhile, Vice President Carl Greenidge stated that with the additional funds the government will be embarking on a project geared towards the enhancement of “the capability of Guyana to conduct counter narcotics by developing correlation the agencies on intelligence gathering and drug trafficking. The long term goal is to ensure the “of personnel assigned to CANU and to strengthen the investigative partnership between CANU and the DEA.”

Guyana is set to receive aid in the amount of US$350,000 for this project.