A former Grenada Deputy Comptroller of Customs has called on the authorities to tighten the operational management around some of the points of entry of goods coming into the country.
Speaking to THE NEW TODAY on Tuesday, the ex-senior public officer said he visited Compass Shipping on the Lagoon Road in St George and was amazed at its operations including the shortage of Customs Staff at the facility.
“The Compass thing needs tightening,” he said.
According to the former No.2 at the Customs Department, the tightening has to come from an administrative perspective as the time has come to start looking at Compass with hawk’s eye.”
“You have to start by saying that you believe that certain wrongs are taking place there,” he said, adding that “we need to put Compass on the radar and look at activities within that warehouse.”
“You have to study it – that’ the only way you’re going to get results,” he remarked.
The ex-Customs Officer spoke of having first-hand knowledge of some goods that manage to leave the compound of Compass without any approval from Customs.
“I don’t know how the system inside dey is working – it is a cause for concern,” he said.
The retired senior Customs Officer called for the Enforcement arm along with the Post-Audit section of Customs to sit down together and “establish a file of what is happening at Compass and do a proper study of Compass.”
He stressed the need for those in Customs to “look for the people who are shipping only by Compass” and try to find out the reason for doing so and how regular they are shipping there.
In addition, he said that an astute Customs Department will pay particular attention to the Consignee and the Sender of the goods in order to build a database.
The ex-senior Customs Officer suggested that this kind of an approach will result in the Department looking at the list of names of persons before a Container is stripped.
“You look at it (the list) and you know who you’re targeting and when Enforcement starts to target people (engaged in wrong-doing) then they will start to run,” he told THE NEW TODAY.
The former senior Customs Officer is not putting the blame at the feet of the operators of the business but the failure of those in authority to put proper structure in place in the interest of national security.
He called for the Enforcement arm at Customs to get down to work in a serious manner and start checking certain barrels thoroughly.
“Just open up everything sometimes,” he said.
The High Command of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) is also known to be extremely concerned with the operations at Compass Shipping.
Several Grenadians have expressed a preference to use Compass Shipping for their goods due to the kind of “one-stop” facility that it offers.
The former No.2 officer at Customs warned the authorities that guns and foreign high-grade ganja from the United States are now coming into the country at those vulnerable points of Entry.
In past years we never used to have weed coming from America. The thing has changed,” he said.
The ex-Customs officer pointed at a special weed that is prevalent on the US market that is coming into the country “on a regular basis.”
This weed from the USA, he said, is now selling at a very expensive price in Grenada and the word on the ground among ganja smokers is that the weed is laced with some kind of a special chemical.
“They are sending down the weed (from the United States and making plenty more money down here,” he told THE NEW TODAY.
The former senior Customs Officer recalled an incident when he was on the job in which a particularly questionable individual left his home to go on the St George’s Port “to clear a barrel and when he realised things were hot he sent his partner to clear it and the partner got through.”
He identified the individual who is from the St George South-east constituency as a person of interest to the police as he was caught with a quantity of ganja a few years ago.
He also urged the hierarchy of the Customs Department to pay particular attention to those Brokers and Porters on the port who are used by some civilians to clear their goods for them.
“You have to ask them questions – why are you clearing for the person? Is the person in America? What is your relationship? You have to know and give it (the goods) a thorough check because people with illegal stuff – most times they don’t come and clear it for themselves – they send somebody or try to use a Broker. It’s a lot of intelligence and knowing people,” he said.
The ex-Deputy Comptroller of Customs also singled out a deportee from Britain who is living in the St Patrick area who should be high on the list of suspects.
“The police know him – I don’t know how much they’re monitoring him. One time we held him with 3 kilos of Cocaine and a gun. Police hold him on H.A Blaize Street one night. He is bringing in a lot of guns – I ain’t telling you dey say.”
According to the ex-Customs officer, one of his informants told him that the individual gave someone a parcel to hold for him and when he looked inside it had three illegal firearms.
The deportee is also said to be the owner of a Fishing boat.