General Secretary for the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) and Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee has announced that he and his party are “aware” of the Opposition’s connection “to drug lords and violent criminal gangs.”General Secretary of the PPP/C Clement RoheeHe was at the time speaking of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s lacklustre approach towards the Anti Money Laundering and Countering of the Financing of Terrorism (AMLCFT) legislation that is currently within the Parliamentary Select Committee. He said that their conduct in relation to delaying the legislation is “evidence that they are involved with criminals and drug lords since they don’t want to expedite the process for the passage of the bills”.Guyana was blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) last year for not passing the necessary legislation required by that entity for fighting money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism. Guyana was given up to March 2014 before the next plenary meeting of CFATF to get its act together or else face a greater tier of blacklisting that would increase sanctions internationally.In the wake of this, Rohee made his assertion on the opposition being in bed with criminal elements and drug lords to justify why they have not been forthcoming with the support to get this legislation fast-tracked. However, the General Secretary in making those comments in essence contradicted himself, since in a previous press conference he said that security agencies have no hard evidence on which to arrest and convict suspected drug lords.“Most of these things are anecdotal. People walk around and say that is a drug lord, that is a drug baron, but I don’t think law enforcement could work on the basis of that kind of situation lest they make themselves a fool in front of the courts, unless they have strong concrete incontrovertible evidence against an individual,Wholesale Jerseys Store, they have to also make sure they are not breaching the constitutional rights of a person when they are moving against such a person based on anecdotal evidence,” Rohee had stated.“Until such time that there incontrovertible evidence that is produced before my own eyes, I am not one that is prone to walk around the country pointing fingers in that direction,” the General Secretary had said on that occasionHowever, at yesterday’s press conference the Home Affairs Minister said the opposition parties in the National Assembly are “protecting the vested interest of a few, whose operations and survival will be affected if the Bill is passed. These persons obviously are those engaged in illicit activities including trading in drugs, arms,Jerseys NFL Cheap, ammunition and who need to launder the proceeds of their ill-gotten gains. In short the majority in the National Assembly has been penetrated, infiltrated and represent the interest of criminal cartels at the expense of their own supporters, their own constituents, their own people and their own country. We have no doubt that they are doing so for a reward.”He further stated that “We have referred at length in the past to their connection with crime, criminals and criminality; again we see uncontroversial evidence of this connection. We are aware of their connections to drug lords and violent criminal gangs. We know that a former PNC [People’s National Congress] leader and Member of Parliament is currently serving a prison sentence in the United States for conspiring to blow up the JFK International Airport. We are aware that his operations at Linden have been taken over by another member.”When pressed to provide the evidence of the opposition’s association with drug lords, Rohee said the “proof is in the Pudding” which he said is the how the opposition is deliberating within the Select Committee and their non-passage of the bill in the National Assembly.“The fact that they are blocking the bill from passage it has to be in favour of somebody; that is my position and the party’s position.”When asked why as Home Affairs Minister he is not going after the drug lords,Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale, criminals and money launders that he is aware of,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, he said that when the AMLCFT Bill is passed “then we will do that”,Wholesale Cheap Jerseys China, but when pressed further,Nike NFL Jerseys China, the General Secretary said “let’s move on.”
