Massive ganja farm destroyed in Berbice River; recent shootout was drug-related

The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has announced that the recent shootout in De Velde Village in the Berbice River is drug related even as its ranks destroyed a massive marijuana farm with over 25,000 cultivated cannabis in the same community on Friday during a drug eradication operation.

Reports are that on Wednesday night, bullets rained in the village in what residents believed to be a horrendous robbery. The Stabroek News reported that six gunmen invaded two homes in a shooting spree. Police were unable to arrive on the scene until a day after and during their investigation, determined that the gang invasion was over a drug-related dispute.

According to a statement from the police on Saturday, “the alleged shooting incident was not robbery-related but is linked to an apparent dispute of a drug-related transaction among several alleged cultivators of cannabis sativa.”

Police said a “person of interest” has since been detained and is cooperating with investigators.

In a separate statement, the police announced that its ranks conducted a drug eradication operation in the same village where it discovered four acres of cultivated cannabis with approximately 25,000 plants ranging in heights from 1ft to 5ft.

They also discovered two camps which had in excess of 100 kilograms of dried cannabis.
Police said the marijuana farm and the camps were destroyed by fire.

According to the statement, no arrests have been made in relation to this incident.

Investigators are currently in the process of tracing the ownership of the lands with a view of instituting charges.