Cocaine in Guyana. coordinated passenger control at the airport

Guyana’s prefect announced on Thursday the coordination of checks on passengers boarding at Felix-Eboue Airport, near Cayenne, in an effort to combat cocaine trafficking. “It will be coordinated.”assured Prefect Thierry Kefelek after a meeting with relevant services at the airport. “We are in the first month, we are already talking about a quarter, half a year (…) We need to make it something lasting”, he added. According to the data reported by the prefect, 93 kilograms of cocaine were seized at the airport since the beginning of November, only 17% were transported by “mules” that took drugs to transport them to the metropolis.

Five networks were dismantled in September

The rest was hidden by other means. During the same month, 844 people were refused admission and could not sit. “If the offenders don’t deliver, their whole system goes down, we collect information to get on the waves.”emphasized the prefect, noting that Felix-Eboue “This is the only French airport that has created this organization.” For public prosecutor Yves Le Clere, who participated in the meeting.this system made it possible to do qualitative and not quantitative (…) At the beginning of September, five networks were dismantled.”

At the entrance to the airport, passengers bound for France are interrogated by the police on several topics, such as the reason for their trip. Depending on the answers, some may be pushed aside for further questioning. There is a passage “behavior analysis”, explained Commissioner Thierry Baures, Head of the Guyana Border Police Territorial Service. Checked baggage is fully X-rayed. According to a 2020 senatorial report, between 15 and 20% of the country’s cocaine supply passes through Guyana, with 8 to 10 smuggled on each flight to France.