Georgetown, Guyana — Nazar “Shell” Mohamed and his son, Azruddin Mohamed, are now being processed for extradition to the United States after their arrest Thursday morning in Georgetown, the Attorney General’s Chambers confirmed.
According to the AG Chambers, members of the Guyana Police Force detained the businessmen under a warrant issued by a Georgetown Magistrate. The arrests followed an official request from the U.S. Government on October 30, pursuant to the extradition treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom, which remains in force in Guyana under the Fugitive Offenders Act, as amended in 2024.
A team of lawyers led by King’s Counsel Terrence Williams, along with attorneys Herbert McKenzie and Celine Deidrick, presented an Authority to Proceed and an application for the arrest warrant to the Magistrate, the statement said.
The Mohameds are wanted in the United States on an indictment unsealed October 6 in the Southern District of Florida, charging them with wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and customs violations tied to an alleged US$50 million gold-export and tax-evasion scheme.
The indictment alleges that from 2017 to June 2024, the men conspired to evade Guyana’s export taxes and royalties on more than 10,000 kilograms of gold by using falsified customs declarations and re-used export seals. It also references a US$5.3 million undeclared gold shipment seized at Miami International Airport and the alleged under-invoicing of a luxury vehicle worth over US$680,000.
The AG Chambers noted that U.S. authorities began investigating the Mohameds in the mid-2010s, with law-enforcement cooperation between the two countries dating back to 2016–2017. Guyana was officially notified of the ongoing U.S. probe following sanctions imposed in June 2024 by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control against the Mohameds and Mohamed’s Enterprise.
In March 2025, Guyana received a detailed dossier of evidence from U.S. authorities under mutual legal assistance arrangements. The package reportedly included documents tied to gold-export irregularities, falsified declarations, and the Miami seizure.
The AG Chambers said the men will now proceed through Guyana’s extradition process in accordance with the Fugitive Offenders Act, the Constitution, and other applicable laws. A court date has not yet been announced.