HGP Nightly News – Guyana is changing the way it fights crime and it is coming for the money. Attorney General Anil Nandlall has served notice that the State is ramping up a sweeping campaign to seize assets, properties and cash linked to criminal activity, signaling that a wave of high-profile forfeiture proceedings is already in motion and that the country’s most notorious bad actors should expect more to follow.
Speaking on his weekly Issues in the News programme on Tuesday evening, Nandlall moved swiftly to silence critics who questioned the State’s decision to accept funds connected to sanctioned gold trader Azruddin Mohamed, currently facing extradition proceedings to the United States. The criticism, he said, reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how the law works. “The State and Government can take sanctioned money and proceeds of crime money. To think otherwise is absolute nonsense,” he said bluntly. Every cent recovered through lawful court proceedings, he explained, flows directly into the Consolidated Fund, and the State has not only the right but the duty to pursue it. “The State will take every single sanctioned cent. Everything will happen in its time,” he added, leaving little doubt about the Government’s intentions.
What Nandlall is describing is nothing short of a strategic shift in how Guyana approaches organised crime. Rather than relying solely on prosecutions, a path that can be long, contested and uncertain, the State is now training its sights squarely on the financial foundations of criminal enterprises. Stripping criminals of their wealth, he argued, strikes at the very heart of what drives criminality in the first place. “The State of Guyana will focus heavily on forfeiture of assets, properties and monies that are tainted by criminality or are considered proceeds of crime,” he said. The legal tools to do so are already firmly in place, he noted, pointing to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the Customs Act and, most powerfully, the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act as the legislative backbone of this offensive.
Guyana is not pursuing this fight alone. Nandlall highlighted deepening cooperation with an impressive array of regional and international partners, including the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, and Interpol. Through these alliances, Guyana is sharing intelligence and receiving mutual legal assistance to track down and recover criminal assets that might otherwise remain hidden. “This is now the identified new approach to crime fighting,” he said.
The courts, crucially, are backing the State’s push. Nandlall pointed to a landmark ruling by the Full Court of the High Court, which upheld orders allowing the State to detain more than $14 million in Guyanese currency and over US$784,000 linked to a convicted drug trafficker, with the court affirming the State’s authority under the AML/CFT Act to hold assets believed to be proceeds of crime. In a separate and equally significant development, Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire granted a detention order to the Special Organised Crime Unit for gold valued at more than $80 million and over $81 million in cash connected to an ongoing case, allowing authorities to hold the assets while criminal proceedings continue. Together, Nandlall argued, these rulings send an unmistakable message that the judiciary stands firmly behind the effort to dismantle criminal enterprises from the inside out.
And if anyone imagines the momentum will slow, the Attorney General’s closing words should dispel that notion entirely. Additional high-profile forfeiture proceedings involving significant sums and valuable assets are already underway, he revealed, with further developments expected in the weeks ahead. Guyana’s new war on organised crime, it is clear, is only just getting started.
