GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — The US Drug Enforcement Administration yesterday offered a reward of US$10,000 (Guyanese $2 million) for information leading to the arrest of the killers of a top Guyanese anti-narcotics officer.

Unidentified gunmen shot Vibert Inniss more than 30 times in August as he stopped to buy a newspaper in Buxton, nine miles (14.5 kilometers) east of the capital, Georgetown.

Police have said they have no leads in the killing.

The US-trained Inniss worked as the deputy director of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, which works closely with the DEA to stem the flow of illegal drugs through this north-coast South American country.

The unit has uncovered large quantities of cocaine hidden on ships and containers leaving Georgetown’s port.

Days before Vibert’s killing, several hand grenades were thrown at the unit’s headquarters in the capital, damaging several vehicles in the compound.

The DEA and the anti-drug unit yesterday published an advertisement offering the reward in the two daily newspapers.

The money would be “discreetly paid upon the arrest of the person or persons involved,” the announcement said.

The DEA’s office in Trinidad is co-ordinating the effort to capture Inniss’ killers, the US Embassy in Guyana said.

Inniss, regarded as honest by fellow officers, is among 20 law enforcement officers gunned down since February 2002, when a violent crime wave started gripping this former British colony.

The US State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report last year said Inniss’ death has dealt a major blow to anti-narcotics work in Guyana.

“Since the assassination of the country’s deputy police chief on August 24 and lack of any arrest in the case, DEA efforts in Guyana have slowed significantly,” the report said.

The country has recorded more than 200 killings in the last 13 months, forcing President Bharrat Jagdeo’s administration to spend more than Guyanese $178 million (US$2 million) to buy new guns, body armour and equipment for police.