Three bus load of smuggled chicken seized; GRA warns of contamination

Enforcement Officers of the Guyana Revenue Authority have intercepted three busloads of smuggled chicken in the Mahaica area just after lunch today. No one was arrested as the suspect fled the location upon seeing the GRA officers. The smuggled Chicken which has been making it’s way onto the local market is ‘Rockingham’

The Guyana Revenue Authority is urging the general public to cease and desist from purchasing and consuming chicken that are smuggled into the country and has not been certified as being fit for human consumption.

The call has been made on the grounds that in many instances, smugglers of the chicken have been keeping them for days without proper cold storage and under conditions not prescribed for storage of such comedies as these smuggles await the course to be clear in order for them to transport the smuggled commodity from location to the next.

A senior GRA operative told BIG Smith News Watch that in the past the agency encountered chicken which was ‘blue’ in most parts and when smugglers were questioned, they admitted that the chicken arrived in the country in some cases two days before seizure but could not move to its final destination as smugglers had to ensure that they evade law and customs enforcement. During that period the chicken begins to spoil.

The spoiled chicken is then mixed with the good ones and sold to retailers and wholesalers which according to the senior GRA official, puts the public at risk of consuming a commodity that is not wholesome.