On a Saturday in early October 2026, a law enforcement operation targeting contraband in Guyana has escalated into a high-profile political defamation dispute, after a senior public figure launched legal action against the country’s main opposition leader over false social media claims. The operation, carried out by Guyana’s Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, widely known as CANU, targeted a rented property at Windsor Estates on the East Bank Demerara, resulting in the seizure of undeclared alcohol and the arrest of three individuals. The property is owned by Ernesto Choo, a sitting member of the Police Service Commission (PSC), but CANU has explicitly stated that Choo is neither a target of the operation nor under any investigation related to the seizure. In an official statement released after the raid, CANU clarified that only one of the three people taken into custody was a tenant at the property, which Choo has leased out for more than three years. “One of the persons arrested stated that he rents the property from Mr. Ernesto Choo. Mr. Ernesto Choo was not the subject in this operation, and not the subject of any investigations of the unit,” the statement read. While no narcotics were recovered during the search, CANU confirmed that officers seized an undocumented shipment of uncustomed alcohol, with a well-placed source familiar with the operation confirming to Demerara Waves Online News that the haul totaled 30 cases of Johnny Walker whisky. Even after CANU’s official clarification, opposition leader Azruddin Mohamed, who heads the main opposition bloc We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), published a Facebook post falsely linking Choo to the contraband seizure. Choo’s legal representative, prominent attorney Sase Gunraj, has denounced the post as deliberate defamation. In a statement responding to the opposition leader’s comments, Gunraj emphasized that his client has not retained possession or control of the property since he rented it out more than three years ago. He described the claims made in Mohamed’s post as “false, malicious and defamatory,” adding that the misleading statements have caused severe, irreversible harm to Choo’s long-standing professional and public reputation. Following the publication of the post, Choo has formally instructed his legal team to move forward with a full defamation lawsuit against Mohamed, holding the opposition leader legally accountable for his damaging false statements. The incident has drawn public attention to the spread of misinformation through social media among Guyana’s political circles, even as law enforcement authorities moved quickly to correct misleading narratives about the routine contraband enforcement operation.