OPINION: A narco-state inside a petrostate: the competition for the crown

Last Updated on Thursday, 5 September 2024, 21:30 by Writer

by GHK Lall

It was first US$176 million, then almost US$200 million, and now, pursuant to a CANU release has settled at 176 million euros. The euros translate to almost US$195 million, which in using the CANU number makes this GY$39 billion in one fell swoop. I am speaking of the record-breaking drug bust in the Matthews Ridge area of Region One. Like Guyana’s mind-blowing, gut-busting, and spellbinding national budgets, the latest drug development in the interior is a whopper. Don’t think Burger King. Think of what was and is king in Guyana. Before oil, drugs ruled the kingdom of Guyana. With the arrival of oil, Guyanese behind illegal pharmaceuticals readily yielded the spotlight to that global commodity. Oil has its own troubles, attracts more than its share of media attention. In the underground competition for the title of economic king of Guyana, oil can have it. What could serve as a better camouflage for the shadowy drugs industry in Guyana? Industry, not sector. Second question: does all this mean that within the thriving petrostate that Guyana is also doubling as an even more thriving narco-state?

In November 2020, there was a seizure in Antwerp, Belgium of approximately 11.5 tons of the good stuff. Don’t look at me; that’s the verdict of Americans and Europeans about what constitutes a highflying lifestyle. The cocaine was found in a shipment of scrap metal. There were intriguing details about scanners and a small supporting cast out of the GRA. Since then, that huge matter has slipped into the solitude of protective silence. Lest we forget, a few months before, there was a smaller drug bust in the German port of Hamburg. The abbreviated version of that bust is that it also originated from Guyana and weighed in at a healthy 1.5 tons of powder. In that earlier interdiction at a European port, the covering linen was not scrap-iron but rice.

Whether a few short years ago or within a few days recently, the point could be made that Guyana remains a bustling transshipment point for South American narcotics hunting for new and innovative ways to reach the insatiable North American and Western European markets. I pause here to make another small point: in some instances, the traffic in narcotics has some resemblance to the ubiquitous threat of terrorism; the masterminds and their business have the advantage of freedom to roam at will. They have enough cash to buy what is needed to ensure the smooth passage of their goods and ideas. From governments to government institutions to government people, entire systems have buckled under the relentless, probing assaults of narcotics and terrorism. There is a school of thought that makes the case that narcotics is terrorism under another title. The bigger story is that for every single huge drug bust that stirs the media into action, there are countless others, albeit relatively smaller in ambition that elude the radars, with delivery executed. The reasonable question is this: how much of this [undetected drug traffic] has been happening, originating, moving into and out of Guyana without any fanfare, or anybody being the wiser?

Like I said earlier, with all the oil action and all the oil money (not forgetting the oil controversies and what passes for subdued local oil wars) captivating the interest of Guyanese, the drug business, never less than booming here, basked in its reprieve. Everybody was and still is focused on King Oil. They will be for some time to come. Here is a teaser: if for one enormous drug bust the haul was US$195 million, that prompts this thought. All that it takes are 8 10 of such shipments, or a dozen of somewhat smaller ones, for drugs to be a bigger revenue stream out of Guyana than oil. Of course, Guyana’s treasury doesn’t get a penny of that money. Well known, well-connected, and well-protected people do, not the official coffers. My concern is just how large the drug business, now largely obscured by great national events, is in Guyana. A reasonable extrapolation of the recent drug developments here and overseas is that it is far from small or medium-sized. How big it is, how high does it go, and how many benefit in one way or another from it is the multimillion-dollar concern. The implications for lawlessness and corruption are seismic in effect.

Last, I note the participants that were the leading contributors to the Matthews Ridge drug interception, included Americans. Remove them from the picture, and it is doubtful that that drug stash would ever have been found. As if to provide tentative confirmation, there are media reports of a senior law enforcement officer being a person of interest. Says so much, doesn’t it? The US did speak of a Guyana network of corruption recently. All this says so much about where Guyana is as a reputable state, what is going on beneath the oil swirls. So, could it be that there is a thriving narco-state within the burgeoning petrostate? I say yes, merely an extension, another byproduct, of corruption. King Oil serves as the perfect cover.