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US military intervention in and near Venezuela could be displacing cocaine trafficking to other parts of the region, notably Guyana, whose new seaports and rapid economic growth have increased its attractiveness for drug traffickers and organized crime.
Customs officials in Antwerp, Belgium, seized more than 1.8 tons of cocaine from a shipment of oils in mid-February, around the same time that officials in Cartagena, Colombia, seized 300 kilograms of cocaine hidden among a shipment of rice. Both containers had departed Guyana.
James Singh, head of Guyana’s Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), told InSight Crime that both containers had been inspected before leaving the country.
“There was tampering with the seals,” he said. “I’m not at liberty to say where, because I don’t know where it happened, but we know for sure that when they left Guyana, they were all intact.”
SEE ALSO: Corruption, Containers, Cocaine: Guyana’s Role In Transnational Drug Trafficking
Both seizures outstripped the total cocaine seized in previous years. Last year, Guyanese officials seized 236 kilograms of cocaine, and in 2023, they seized just 85 kilograms.
However, large cocaine seizures have been made in the past either in Guyana or linked to the country. Working with information from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Guyanese officials seized 4.4 tons in August 2024. Five months earlier, US authorities seized 2.4 tons from a semi-submersible vessel 150 miles off the coast of Guyana. Officials in Antwerp also discovered 11.5 tons hidden among scrap metal that had been sent from Guyana in November 2020.
Those seizures suggest that traffickers have been sending substantial amounts of cocaine through the country even if a lack of detection capacity has meant authorities have not always been aware of this.
Traffickers may now be increasingly turning their sights to Guyana and some of its neighbors in a bid to evade the US military, which since September 2025 has been launching deadly strikes on go-fast boats suspected of transporting cocaine in the Caribbean.
Security force sources and residents in the key drug trafficking states of Sucre and Falcón in Venezuela told InSight Crime that the strikes had effectively brought trafficking to nearby islands to a halt.
But this does not mean traffickers have stopped moving drugs. Singh told InSight Crime that the number of unregistered flights passing through Guyana increased following the beginning of the strikes, evidence of a potential eastward shift in trafficking routes, even though the flights have been passing through the country’s airspace without touching down. Authorities in neighboring Suriname also discovered a semi-submersible vessel under construction in February, further suggesting a possible shift to South America’s Caribbean nations.
If US forces should withdraw completely from the Caribbean, traffickers may resume sending go-fast boats along established routes from Venezuela’s north coast through the Caribbean.
New Ports, Increased Trade Could Provide New Trafficking Routes
Accelerated oil-driven economic growth and the expansion of Guyana’s port infrastructure offer traffickers new smuggling opportunities combined with new options to launder their money.
Multiple large-scale ports are either already under construction or in the planning stages in Guyana. The extra cargo traffic these would bring to the country would not only boost trade, but also provide traffickers with additional routes for transatlantic drug shipments.
The cities of Guayaquil, Ecuador, and Limón, Costa Rica, both saw increases in drug trafficking and drug-related violence after new ports were opened.
However, Singh insisted that Guyana’s criminal landscape differs greatly from those of Costa Rica, and especially Ecuador, making it less vulnerable to an expansion of drug trafficking.
“We do not have gangs protecting shipments or carving out territory,” he said. “Guyana is a very small country, so any group trying to take over a port or to control a port, they won’t stand a chance because law enforcement is doing its best to make sure that we don’t have gangs of any type gain a foothold here.”
More Money Without More Money Laundering?
Economic development in Guyana could also provide traffickers and other organized criminals greater options to launder their money.
The construction sector grew around 30% last year, according to the government, and this boom provides criminals with a wealth of opportunities to blend illicit and legal profits, whether through setting up front companies, infiltrating existing ones, or investing in real estate. Cash-intensive businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and casinos also allow criminals to launder illicit funds.
Guyana has been working to boost its anti-money laundering capacity. The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), an international anti-financial crime peer review group, noted the country’s improved understanding of money laundering risks in its 2024 assessment. However, the US State Department’s 2025 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) identified Guyana’s police force as a “weak link” in the country’s anti-money laundering efforts.
Featured image: InSight Crime collage
