Investigators are said to be hot on the trail of a number of persons whose names and numbers have showed up in Rondell Rawlin’s diary which was abandoned when lawmen engaged his gang of seven at Christmas Falls in the Upper Berbice River last Friday.
Police yesterday were still grilling a female resident of Lethem who they believe could provide vital information regarding the whereabouts of Rawlins and his gang. Up to press time last night a senior police officer close to the investigation said that there had been no further development in the mission to capture the men, who the joint services believe are still trapped in the area.
As days have elapsed since the men escaped with no further sighting, observers are coming around to accepting that they might have skipped the security forces’ cordon. Stabroek News had been told that the woman might have been the last person to have made contact with Rawlins, whose diary revealed notes on the Lusignan and Bartica killings and also plans to avenge his murdered sister, Marcyn King and his teenage, child mother, Tenisha Morgan who had gone missing.
Stabroek News was told that the joint services have begun verifying the telephone numbers that appeared in the diary as well as the names of persons. This so far has led to investigators placing a few calls to these numbers, but some of the phones are turned off.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud when contacted yesterday would only say that the search continues for the gunmen. He also confirmed that the woman is still being detained at Lethem. Several questions are being raised as to why the joint services allowed the gunmen to escape despite apparently getting very close to them. One letter writer to this newspaper yesterday questioned whether the joint services had put to work their tracker dogs, which he felt were necessary in this stage of the operation to capture the men. Senior joint services sources had told this newspaper that the army’s two Bell 206 helicopters were deployed in the area and these were conducting air reconnaissance, while other law enforcement ranks were deployed on boat and land.
Meanwhile, reports out of Central Lethem, Rupununi yesterday indicated that family and friends of the 30-year-old woman in custody had been staying far from her, fearful that they too could be arrested. “They are not taking any chance…some of them even have left the area,” a prominent resident of the community told Stabroek News. This newspaper made contact with one of the woman’s friends, who confirmed that she was still in the police lock-ups. When Stabroek News had first contacted the police on Wednesday a senior police officer in the district said the woman was detained in relation to a sensitive security issue in the community. Lethem, which is close to the Brazil border is said to be a transshipment point for drugs and the arms trade between the two countries.
Security experts believe that most of the illegal firearms on the streets today are sourced from Brazil and criminal gangs such as the one being headed by Rawlins would need contacts in the hinterland community to facilitate his trade. Since Friday the closest the security forces came to producing any tangible leads of the gunmen is when they stumbled on a part of a firearm abandoned by the gang on Tuesday.
Responding to intelligence reports that Rawlins and his troops were hiding out at Christmas Falls some 300 miles up the Berbice River, members of the Joint Services descended on the forested area on Friday. Once there they came under fire from around seven men, one of whom – Otis ‘Mud-Up’ Fifee was shot and killed.
The other six men, including Rawlins however managed to escape leaving behind a cache of arms and ammunition, some of which has been confirmed by police as having been stolen from the Bartica Police station the night that community came under siege by gunmen.
The security forces had also discovered that the men were housed in an area with four buildings.
They had foodstuff to last several weeks in a large kitchen, which also had a gas stove, generator and solar energy. In addition, there were six portable tents, four hammocks, three mattresses, a mini-stereo system, a DVD player, a cell phone, a hand-held radio set, items of clothing, medical supplies and a Bible.
Anyone with a scintilla of intelligence knows that this nancy-story about a located diary belonging to fine-man is a farce. Additionally, the local law enforcement or sleuth have proven that they cannot find their way out of a wet paper-bag.
This is a great bed-time story!
I hope everyone is tucked in and ready to fall asleep!
HA HA HA
How dare the PPP and its sympathizers also tell us Mudup is dead.
Ha Ha Ha, they think we are stupid enough to believe that too? How outrageously funny!
These sl- ut- sss- couldn’t escape through a wall- less room. Ha! hA! hA!
They think they are more intelligent than us. Get out of here. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Buxtonians said the young man had never left the village and was involved in criminal activities with the Buxton/Agricola criminal gang. “He was a known bandit and everybody knows about him and he was always there,” an elderly woman told Stabroek News yesterday. Wendy Fifee said she recognised her son yesterday morning after seeing the Kaieteur News, which had published his corpse on its front page. “I know it was he, even though he went away so long I recognised my son,” the woman said.
Denying knowing about her son’s escapades, Fifee said once he left her home she was not in touch with him and did not know what he was up to. “I don’t know what he been doing. You does hear a lot of things but I ain’t know,” she said.
Villagers said the young man grew up poor and was led astray by friends and only recently he graduated into a full-fledged member of the criminal gang. Buxton has turned out a number of the country’s armed criminals and village leaders in the past had blamed this on the lack of opportunities in the community.
She claims that she had not seen him for 2yrs, yet other buxtonians claim he was in buxton involved in criminal activities.
I have not an ounce of regard for the credibility of a crime Chief under whose watch attempts were made to get the Mayor of Georgetown to sign a fictious statement just so it can implicate someone. I believe that there are machiavellien machinations in place under the supervision of persons married politically and other wise to the ruling structure to “get” those who refuse to be cowed into submission.
C’mon. A senior Superindtendent was caught on tape planning a drug deal and nothing happened to him. Now Members of CANU are being fired for failing lie detector tests. How come this Police Officer was not the first person to be given that test? C’mon
Guyana has become the land where justice has come to mean “just us”. That is to say that law enforcement means ignoring the crimes of some while focussing on the deeds of others. The people in charge know of no other way to run a country.
Well said no clue on how to govern this is worse that a salt-goods shop
I firmly now believe that this story about Rawlins is a hoax. Why were tracker dogs not employed after these guys were locked in an area & cannot be found. HMMMM!! Some intelligent police & soldiering work. When the hammer falls I hope they will all be able to answer to the charge.
It is widely believed by critics that the slaughter in Lusignan was initiated to dissuade the residents from becoming cozy with the opposition PNC party. The Bartica massacre was then launched as an after thought to reinforce credibility to the fineman illusion.
The police never seem to think about using tracking dogs. maybe they can’t afford to feed the dogs, or maybe the dogs might take bribes to not find the bandits who always seem to run off into the bushes, and excape.
So u are hoping that the police actually have tracker dogs? if so, why weren’t they used the hundred times that the bandits ran off into the bushes?
Of course the “Fineman” story is not true.The police were so close as to identify him and yet they can’t catch them? They even knew they only had two weapons. PLEASE.About this so called diary, why would someone write that they killed these people and how they planned it.Anyway I thought that the police had arrested the killers already.
Well said
Let’s For Once Unite And Support The Arm Forces In Their Hunt For “Fineman” And The Other Killers Of Innocent People ,Especially Little Children They Woke Out Of Their Sleep And Killed, Surely There’s A lot Of Corruption In Various Level Of The Forces But Right Now Let’s All Be Cautiously Optimistic That The Men In Uniform Means Business This Time, “ENOUGH IS JUST ENOUGH” We Want Back The Freedom To Go Anywhere Without Fear Of Being Kidnapped,Robbed, Killed Or All Of Those!
When it comes to curruption- its not the armed forces that people are concerned about. They simply take orders from the civilian leadership and the rot starts from the top.
In deed “ENOUGH IS JUST ENOUGH” and we need to get back a country of Freedom. I am not a fineman supporter but can we say for sure that he did the murders. The Government of Guyana needs to start self examination. A saying that comes to mind is that whatever dirt you have on your head will eventually fall on to your shoulders and then your entire body will be cover with the dirt.
My point is that the rulers of this country need to start taking responsibility for some of the stuffs that is going on, starting with getting rid of the persons in the police force that are taking bribe. Now you mean to tell me that the law men came so close several times in catching Fineman and aint catch him yet, something is wrong somewhere.
the fineman nancy story is osama bin laden made by the cia all over again
they know what he eats, when he eats, he’s on a dialysis machine, a 6 foot 6 arab in the mountains, he’s been seen here there and everywhere, he releases a rap video weekly and he’s still on the run and a mortal threat to the world. so the empire strikes back with war here there and everywhere. and the biggest war is the psychological war…sounds familiar?
see fineman & co
ha ha ha “nancy story” i haven’t heard tha analogy like forever.
you are on the money my dear.
perhaps mouth organ luncheon can read us the story
ha ha ha
Ne jamais rien tenir pour acquis.
Bluegrass….
The problem with most people in Guyana – all races included, is that they have this bias against Buxtonians, for what ever reason but most of what you heard about these people are not true. I lived among them for five years and they are some of the nicest people I have ever met. The thing about Buxtonians is that they don’t trust easily. You have to earn their trust and if you dont it doesn’t matter what ethnicity you are, you will always be an outsider. They love their own more than Christ and this saying is alive with Buxtonian, ” Wah hut belly does mek eye run water.” So the turning point for Buxton in my opinion was the Shakka Blair incident and I think we are still paying for it. In that incident the GPF hut dem belly and believe me people cry for days.
Like any proud people they dress in their red and black, walk from town to Buxton and then burry they dead. After that they develop a total distrust for GPF – of the like you have never seen before and anyone associated with it.
Buxton don’t turn out nor produce criminals again you are stereotyping that is not a fair statement. You make it sound like ever Buxtonian that is born is a potential criminal. What you forgetting is that after the jail break Andrew Douglas took his criminal entourage to Buxton 11 miles from Eve Leary Police Station, after spending time three houses from Gajraj. Within those 11 miles, they are four Police stations; why didn’t police get them in those early days? With the advent of Shakka’s incident the escapees found futile ground for their activities and once some young people in that village tasted the proceeds from crime it was different to turn back; coupled with the economic situation in Guyana. All this was avoidable. It all happened within 11 miles between four Police stations. Isn’t something wrong here people?
If only the GPF can change its cowboy attitude and find a meaningful way to communicate with this community, on terms that involve respect for citizens rights, respect for the laws and conduct themselves in a professional manner, just maybe they will be fortunate in getting the assistance they need to apprehend those who are involve in criminal activities.
The Government also need to play its part but not just for Buxton/Buxtonians but for all citizens of this dear land and do something fast about this economy. Or GPF will continue to find more diaries.
i was not critical of the buxtonians, i was just pointing out the facts. some are reporting that he was in buxton and if so why did’t they called the GPF. his life is wasted and so are the other youths.
i personally do not have any hard feelings against any afro guyanese, its directed aganist the PNC, they were at the helms and they screwed up.[that includes the indo guyanese who was part of the PNC.]
you can take my word for it. i have some great afro guyanese friends and whenever they are here to visit, they visit or called me and thats the respect we have, however we have our political differences.[ppp---PNC] after election its over.
we are guyanese and we must respect one-another because we have to live together, we have no where else to go.
This excerpt is from Kaieteur news – “According to a source who was in the area, the gunmen’s hideout was facilitated by four escape routes, two of which were secured by the security forces prior to the attack.
However, he said that the men used the other two escape routes to flee.
He explained that the dead gunman, Otis ‘Mud Up’ Fiffee, was putting on his boots when the security forces launched their attack, catching him by surprise.
This is a slightly different version from a previous explanation which indicated that the security forces stumbled on two of the men who were armed.
It was earlier reported that Fiffee was shot dead while the other gunman who reportedly picked up his weapon managed to escape.”
My question is – how did they know which escape routes to use? Co-incidence to use the two that were not blocked off.