Gold smugglers arrested in Guyana

 


The current gold price per gram is 20,454.28 Guyanese Dollars (GYD). The Guyanese Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) disclosed that two Brazilians, a Cuban and a Guyanese national were arrested on Thursday April 3, 2025, as part of a major probe into a gold smuggling operation.


CMC reports that the four were found with a large quantity of gold valued at over GUY$30 million (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) and over GUY$31 million in cash. SOCU said that officers also confiscated a quantity of electronic equipment and that the bust is a significant breakthrough in the fight against illicit gold smuggling.

According to the head of SOCU, Deputy Commissioner Fazil Karimbaksh, the SOCU officers were able to disrupt the smuggling operation before the gold could be moved.

He warned gold smugglers to “stop this illicit activity or they will face the full force of the law”.

The latest crackdown follows a similar exercise on March 5, 2025, when two people were arrested.

“The Government of Guyana remains resolute in its mission to combat illicit gold smuggling and dismantle networks involved in these illegal activities. Officials continue to monitor and enforce strict measures to hold offenders accountable and prevent further economic losses to the country,” the SOCU release noted.According to GlobalData, Guyana was the world’s twenty-fourth-largest producer of gold in 2023, with output up by 4 per cent on 2022. Over the five years to 2022, production from Guyana increased by a CAGR of 3 per cent and is expected to rise by a CAGR of 0.91 per cent between 2023 and 2027.

Source: CMC and Caribbean Money Daily
Photo: ggdma.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kintyre makes US$300,000 investment in Sevens Ice

Image
  Tyrone Wilson Chairman, President and CEO Kintyre Holdings (JA) Limited (KHL) and Seven Kingston Limited, owners of the Seven Ultra Lounge and Restaurant, on January 14 announced a joint venture to launch Sevens Ice. Kintyre Holdings has made an investment in excess of US$300,000 in acquiring an associate stake in Seven and also establishing the start-up for the ice venture. "This initiative addresses Jamaica’s growing demand for high-quality ice, with operations set to begin in Q1 2025," Wilson stated. Additionally, the venture has acquired a cold storage facility to manage its start-up capacity and is exploring the importation of ice to bridge the gap between demand and supply, ensuring a consistent and reliable market presence. Distribution Expansion Wilson said that Sevens Ice has secured a distribution point in Kingston and is in the process of setting up another in St. Catherine to serve the western and central parts of the island. This expansion will ensure broade...
Read more

BCMG increases risk management oversight: Launches surveys-as-a -service

Image
Insurance brokers in Jamaica often send underwriters themselves to survey risks; however, they frequently do not have the technical knowledge required to produce the best results. BCMG Insurance Brokers Limited (BCMG) in response, introduced - in support of the wider brokerage industry - an updated surveys-as-a service product which has been embraced by the wider community as groundbreaking. Senior Risk Manager on the New Business Team of BCMG David Lazarus explains, “We saw where the technical details and in-depth knowledge of the intricacies of business operations were not always being taken into consideration. This was seen as an opportunity to expand into this space.” In 2020, Billy Craig Insurance Brokers and Maritime General Insurance Brokers, MGI, signed an agreement to merge their operations to form BCMG Insurance Brokers Limited. Following the union, the new company has been exploring options to expand the service capability of the brokerage and increase value for clients...
Read more

Wish List: University Hospital CEO seeks top-flight CFO for turnaround miracle

Image
  It's a puzzling end of year for the finance team at the University Hospital of the West Indies where, despite an ongoing plan to quadruple plant size and service centres for the teaching institution, its current state is one of insolvency, with CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell wishing for a new Chief Financial Officer with a touch of genius to help in turning things around. Medium term, the government is aiming to significantly update this, the Caribbean's premium medical hospital and teaching school. At last report, the price tag on the project was $4.9 billion. In the works are plans for a new 6-storey, 120,000 square feet medical facility, which will accommodate an additional 40 medical and surgical beds, improvements to outpatient or ambulatory surgery, lecture rooms, conference rooms, and upgrading of the cardiology hybrid interventional surgery room and the neonatal intensive care and administrative departments. However, the institution is currently struggling to become solvent ...
Read more