HomeNewsBriefSuriname Customs Official Arrested for Fuel Fraud
BRIEF

Suriname Customs Official Arrested for Fuel Fraud

SURINAME / 2 FEB 2012 BY CHRISTOPHER LOOFT EN

Police in Suriname have arrested a high-ranking customs official for fuel fraud, in another sign of how vulnerable the tiny country is to organized crime and corruption.

De Ware Tijd newspaper reported that the official was not accurately reporting fuel imports. The scheme involved trawlers that would collect cheap fuel at sea and return to sell it in Suriname for a profit, with the official presumably taking a commission on these sales.

The senior inspector involved was the second customs official arrested for fraud in two weeks, the newspaper reported. The other official was arrested for forging documents related to car imports.

The newspaper did not give the name of either official.

InSight Crime Analysis

Suriname and its neighbors host a range of international criminal activity, such as drug trafficking. According to the 2011 State Department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Suriname is a transit point for cocaine from South America, primarily heading to Europe and Africa, and usually by sea.

"Porous borders ... make Suriname a target for transshipment of drugs," the report stated.

Suriname is also vulnerable to other criminal activities. Alleged members of a Chinese human trafficking ring were recently arrested in Amsterdam en route to the tiny Caribbean nation. Additionally, pirates dog fishermen off the coast of Suriname and neighboring Guyana. The United States has responded with aid in the form of patrol boats for the two countries to help combat crime and violence.

The country's image worsened with the inauguration of controversial "narco-president" Desi Bouterse. Bouterse was convicted by a Dutch court of drug trafficking in 1999 and is currently on trial in his own country for multiple homicides that occurred in 1982.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ECUADOR / 8 NOV 2022

Environmental crime is devastating the Amazon. What are these five Amazonian states doing to protect it?…

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME / 27 JUL 2022

A black market for fishing licenses is flourishing in Suriname. Fishers from Guyana rent them from boat owners for a…

BOLIVIA / 8 NOV 2022

The Amazon is one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, where wildlife trafficking threatens hundreds of thousands of species.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…