Former Gold Board chairman says U.S. embassy provided names of suspected gold smugglers

Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 October 2025, 20:15 by Writer

– Police was not called in
– None of the suspects on the U.S. list included the Mohameds

Former chairman of the Guyana Gold Board (GGB), Gabriel Lall said the United States (U.S.) Embassy had handed over a dossier of names of alleged gold smugglers and other suspected criminals, and he had handed them over to then Natural Resources minister Raphael Trotman.

“Absolutely! As a matter of fact, they brought out a file…It had about 40 names and pictures inside. I didn’t recognise any of those people…gold smuggling, drug smuggling, anti-money laundering…All Guyanese but I didn’t recognise…Remember, I’m knew to this place at the time so I didn’t recognise any of them,” said Mr Lall, an American citizen who returned to Guyana to live.

Assuming that the U.S. was probably cautious in dealing with him, he said its embassy had its views on gold smuggling but at no time was any information provided that specific individuals were definitely gold smugglers.

Mr Lall said Azruddin Mohamed and his father Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed or “the major players” in Guyana’s gold community were not mentioned in that U.S. Embassy document that had been handed to him.

Mr Lall said “I shared that information with the minister who had some of it.” He added that “I think that that was not my place” to call in the police because it was shared with him confidentially from one government of a country of which he is a citizen.

Neither Mr Trotman nor then Public Security minister Khemraj Ramjattan could be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Initially, Mr Lall said the GGB did not summon the police because it did not have sufficient information other than word-of-mouth rumours and speculation. “What was heard was there is smuggling going on but as to the specifics on persons, groups that could have possibly been engaged in that crime, there wasn’t much more coming to us on that,” he also said.

He acknowledged that if the GGB had information with “specifics”, that entity had a duty to call in the police force because “it would be improper” for the Board to have hard intelligence on gold smuggling without sharing it. “The fact of the matter is that gold smuggling intelligence rarely trickled down to us with specifics,” he added.

He said “intuitively” the GGB believed that there was “leakage” of gold somewhere. He said the board had duty to communicate with the Natural Resources minister and the Guyana Police Force about information and suggest a course of action. He also said suspect gold smugglers were flagged. “There were suspicions of different players, major players involved in gold smuggling operations…but beyond that, rumours, speculation, competition between rival dealers, we couldn’t go anywhere beyond that,” he said.

According to the former GGB chairman, a number of the dealers had from time to time had their lawyers dispatch letters informing the Board that it had no jurisdiction on some issues.

Mr Lall said he had heard of a gold smuggling investigation codenamed “Operation Gold Digger” at a time of frequent meetings with the then Regional Security Officer of the U.S. Embassy.

He said a number of intelligence gathering operations were going on but he had no concrete information.

The former GGB Chairman also said discussions on the issue of gold smuggling should be part of the past minutes of board meetings during his tenure. He also did not believe that gold smuggling was in the GGB’s annual report.

He said gold production figures from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission were shared with the GGB and the Financial Intelligence Unit.

The U.S. grand jury’s indictment against the Mohameds alleges, among other things, that they reused empty boxes with intact Guyana Revenue Authority and Guyana Gold Board seals for “shipments of gold to make it appear that Mohamed’s Enterprise had paid Guyana taxes and royalties on shipments of gold when, in truth and in fact, Mohamed’s Enterprise had not paid them on those shipments of gold.”

Mr Lall said the boxes, once opened, should not be reusable and the seals, once opened, would be broken. “Therefore, for them to reuse the boxes and the seals, as alleged, it takes a lot of skill to do that and it takes a lot of cooperation to that,” he said.

He said the Guyana Police Force, Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, Guyana Revenue Authority’s Customs Department and the Guyana Gold Board all inspected the gold that was prepared for export. He said there was usually a sequential log of the number of seals that were used. “Once a seal is used its gone…It’s not renewable as far as I am aware,” Mr Lall said when asked about the accounting system for the seals.

He also recalled that the Mohameds had disliked the GGB’s rules. “I had my troubles with the Mohameds at the Gold Board. When I say troubles, they didn’t like the regulations because it applied to the State and the Guyana Gold Board itself and its exportations. It applied to every dealer, every exporter,” he added.

He also said quite a lot of the staff had “too much of a cozy relationship” with the gold exporting community. He said a number of them had been “gotten rid of” by way of due process.

Supporting the government’s decision to order the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Revenue Authority to conduct a wide-ranging probe into alleged gold smuggling sparked by the U.S.’ Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanction and subsequent indictment of the Mohameds, Mr Lall urged that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) be called in to assist with such an investigation. “I would not stop at the Guyana Police Force. I would also encourage the government for us to have the best in a thorough and credible investigation by inviting the FBI of America to participate in that investigation,” he said.

He said the investigation would be a trial of democracy and the local police’s ability to conduct a professional or political enquiry into who was involved in “this web of gold smugglers, tax evaders, aiders and abettors and conspirators”.

He indicated that he was ready to cooperate with investigators, maintaining that he has not acquired any new wealth over the past 20 years and has no interests in any local business.

Clearly upset that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had singled him out as someone, who could be investigated, Mr Lall said gold smuggling in Guyana could not be done without the alleged involvement of political actors. “The fact that my name was mentioned out of all these government officials is objectionable to me and seriously so because it prejudices my rights, in my opinion, but this is more than a test of myself,” he said. He said the fact that his name was singled out and mentioned amounted to political persecution, inquisition and repression.

The Mohameds were sanctioned by OFAC in June 2024 for allegedly evading more than US$50 million in taxes payable to the Guyana government on more than 10,000 kilogrammes of gold exports.

More than 20 years ago, a regional airline pilot had been caught smuggling gold through the Cheddi Jagan International Airport by abusing his privilege.

Several years later, a large quantity of gold that originated from Guyana was stolen from a vessel in Curacao.