SOCU Raids Opposition Leader's Firm, Finds Signs of Unlicensed Money Exchange

Officers from Guyana's Special Organised Crime Unit searched Mohamed's Enterprise in Georgetown, taking away cash, paperwork tied to gold dealings, and a firearm as part of a financial crimes probe.

SOCU Raids Opposition Leader's Firm, Finds Signs of Unlicensed Money Exchange

A team from Guyana's Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) searched Mohamed's Enterprise in Georgetown on Wednesday, saying they found proof of unlawful financial dealings at the site.

As reported by The St Kitts Nevis Observer, the raid lasted about thirty minutes. SOCU said it acted after receiving reliable intelligence about suspected criminal conduct at the location.

Searchers took away close to two million Guyana dollars, multiple boxes of records connected to gold transactions, and a privately owned gun registered to a relative of Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed. One family member and a worker were brought to a police station for questioning.

SOCU indicated that everything collected is now being examined forensically and financially. The unit portrayed the raid as one piece of a wider effort — both inside Guyana and across the region — to break up criminal rings dealing in gold smuggling, unauthorised currency trading, and illegal money movements.

Mohamed, who watched the search unfold, called it political revenge. He maintained the money found was meant for charitable giving to the poor, and stressed that no gold, narcotics, or major cash hoard was located. He also voiced worries that evidence might be planted, and kept asking officers to stay by his side during the operation.

This was the first time the Mohamed family's properties had been searched since Washington placed sanctions on Azruddin and his father, Nazar 'Shell' Mohamed. The US Treasury accused them of moving over ten thousand kilogrammes of gold valued at more than fifty million US dollars without paying duties to Georgetown. Last autumn, a federal grand jury in America charged the pair with wire fraud, postal fraud, and laundering money. Washington is now trying to have Azruddin sent there to stand trial.

Source: Google News GY — Crime