With no sign of the Air Services Limited plane which vanished from the Essequibo coast on Sunday, one senior police officer says that the disappearance may have been the work of drug dealers.
General Manager of Air Services, Fazel Khan is adamant that the plane is not in Guyana, but he refused to speculate as to the motive behind the disappearance. Speaking to Stabroek News on the condition of anonymity a senior police officer said that there could hardly be any other motive for the disappearance of the plane other than to transport drugs between Guyana and one of the neighbouring countries. Stabroek News was told that local authorities have contacted their counterparts in Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname about the missing plane.
It is widely believed that drug dealers from neighbouring Brazil and Venezuela have routinely dropped off cocaine in Guyana’s large and unpatrolled forests. Georgetown is seen as a trans-shipment point for cocaine going to North America and the US over the years has blasted the government here for not doing enough to tackle the scourge.
Meanwhile, the five persons held in connection with the disappearance of the aircraft remained in police custody yesterday and their lawyer, Anil Nandlall has threatened to take court action today to have them released.
Nandlall told Stabroek News that he made repeated pleas to the police yesterday and the day before for the release of his client but the lawmen held firm. “They are not breaking anything and I don’t know why they continue to hold on to the people,” Nandlall said to Stabroek News.
He believes that his clients, one a Brazilian who is a naturalized citizen and three Guyanese have done nothing wrong and instead of them being treated as the victims they are now being accused.
Police held the Brazilian who is one of the directors of Fenix Airways Inc, the company which bought the plane from Air Services Limited, but has not paid off in full, on Tuesday when he and Nandlall visited CID, headquarters, Eve Leary. Also arrested were two brothers and one of the men’s wives. A fifth man is also being held at the Brickdam Police Station.
When contacted by this newspaper late yesterday afternoon Nandlall said that the police have ignored his pleas and as such he was approaching the court with a habeas corpus writ to have them released. “I am preparing it right now so that tomorrow morning (today) I can file it,” Nandlall declared. Asked for an update on their investigation a senior police source said that the plane was still missing. The source said that they were questioning the five persons in an effort to “get to the bottom of the story”
Stabroek News was told by a source close to the investigation that there appears to be something amiss. Ac-cording to a police press release issued on Monday the blue and white Piper Seneca aircraft with red stripes and marking, 8RGAA on the tail disappeared from the airstrip between 8 am on Sunday and 7 am on Monday. Air Services had sold the plane to Fenix Airways Inc about a month ago, but the company did not pay in full and as such the registration of the aircraft has remained with it pending full payment. Khan told Stabroek News on Tuesday that the aircraft departed the Air Services hangar at Ogle on Sunday with a flight plan to land at Anna Regina. There is speculation that if the aircraft was stolen it may be in the hands of drug dealers operating between Guyana and Venezuela.
Residents had told this newspaper on Monday that they had seen the aircraft circling before touching down on Sunday. According to them, they saw what appeared to be persons refuelling the plane before it took off once again. The Anna Regina airstrip is an open field and is not usually used for commercial flights as those flights normally utilize the Hampton Court airstrip. The airstrip is also surrounded by bush and is not visible from the road.
Nandlall said that one of the pilots of Fenix Airways travelled to Essequibo on Sunday to take his family. The pilot left the aircraft on the airfield to escort his family to the home of a relative and by the time he returned the plane had vanished. It is not the first time that a local aircraft has vanished while in Guyana. Several years ago an aircraft was stolen from an airstrip in the North West district. It was later found in Colombia. (Nigel Williams)
