On Monday, June 22, 2026, Guyana law enforcement announced that a second Venezuelan national has been formally charged and remanded to custody in connection with a major illegal arms seizure earlier this month that uncovered 23 AK-47 assault rifles.
The accused individual is 54-year-old Juan Felipe Gonzalez, a resident of Tuschen Housing Scheme located on Guyana’s East Bank Essequibo. According to official statements from the Guyana Police Force, Gonzalez faces one count of Conspiracy to Commit a Felony, a charge brought under Section 33 of the country’s Criminal Law (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:01.
The charge stems from an ongoing multi-agency investigation into the unauthorized possession of firearms and ammunition, an incident that was first uncovered on June 11, 2026, in Schoonard, a community on Guyana’s West Bank Demerara. Gonzalez was taken into law enforcement custody one week after the initial seizure, on June 18, 2026, and appeared before Magistrate Rhondell Weaver at the Wales Magistrate’s Court this Monday to hear the formal charges read.
Court procedures saw Gonzalez not required to enter a plea at this stage of proceedings. Requests for bail were rejected by the court, and Gonzalez was immediately remanded to prison to await further action in the case. The legal matter has been adjourned until July 14, 2026, when a progress report on the investigation is scheduled to be submitted to the court.
Gonzalez is the second person to face charges connected to this high-profile arms cache. The first suspect, 27-year-old construction worker Jonathan David Gans, a resident of Great Diamond on East Bank Demerara, was arrested on the same day the cache was discovered. Gans has already been charged with two separate offenses: possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of unlicensed ammunition.
The illegal arms stockpile, which included 23 fully automatic AK-47 assault rifles alongside more than 500 rounds of matching ammunition, was seized during a coordinated joint operation conducted by the Guyana Police Force and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, launched to target illicit contraband smuggling in the region.