Some 20 people connected to drug accused businessman Roger Khan have given statements to Khan’s New York lawyer Robert Simels who was here for two days and the US is to introduce as evidence a ledger of a slain boutique owner which contained the names of alleged drug dealers.
The ledger belonging to murdered boutique owner Davendra Persaud with a list of names of drug dealers is among a pile of evidence the US Government has since submitted to the court in Khan’s case. Persaud was gunned down at Palm Court in October of 2004 by unknown persons.
One of Khan’s lawyers said the US might be hoping to use some of the persons on Persaud’s ledger to give evidence against Khan. Stabroek News was told that some of the names in Persaud’s ledger were of men who are either in US jails on narcotics-related charges or are known in Guyana for allegedly trafficking in cocaine. Persaud was shot close to 15 times in what appeared to be an organised hit orchestrated by a gang of four. Persaud had been charged locally in relation to drugs.
Reports were that four men, two of whom were wearing masks, turned up at the Main Street hangout spot in a white Toyota Sprinter car registration number PJJ 1767 a little before 10 pm. Two men remained in the car, another stood guard at the gate, while one went up to Persaud and shot him.
The gunman reportedly stood over him and opened fire at close range. Police had arrested a number of persons for questioning, but they were all released.
Meanwhile, Simels said he was concerned that many of the potential defence witnesses would be too intimidated by the US Government to travel to New York to give their testimony in court. Simels was well guarded while in Guyana by Khan’s own bodyguards and the businessman’s associate Gerald Pereira drove him around. He departed yesterday morning.
One of Khan’s attorneys said most of the witnesses are fearful that their visas to the US might be revoked or they themselves might be arrested.
Stabroek News was told that Simels met a number of persons, some bodyguards and others allegedly employed by the 35-year-old businessman. Reports are also that Simels might have met with law enforcement officials here but when asked to confirm this, the attorney offered no comment.
This newspaper was also informed that Gary Tuggle, US DEA agent in Trinidad, was in Guyana recently and he met key law enforcements officials. It is not clear whether Simels’s visit was as a result of this. Tuggle was one of those who had escorted Khan to Miami after he was nabbed in Trinidad.
In an interview with Capitol News, Simels said he came to Guyana on Tuesday to have an overview of Khan’s activities spanning from February 23, 2002, when the five prisoners made a bloody escape from the Camp Street jail ushering in an unprecedented crime wave, to when the businessman was arrested.
Khan has admitted that he played a key role in the subsequent neutralising of several of the escapees, noting in one of his several public statements that he used his own resources to help fight crime during the escapee-led violence in 2002-3.
It was later revealed that the drug accused employed a network of ex-convicts and former policemen.
Simels said he interviewed a number of persons, who gave him an idea as to the places the joint services searched when they were hunting Khan following the theft of the Guyana Defence Force weapons. The attorney said also that he met witnesses as well as proposed witnesses.
Asked what he had gleaned from the interviews with the witnesses, Simels said information that will be useful for the trial. Khan is currently before a New York court charged with conspiracy to import cocaine into the US between 2001 and 2006.
On Monday the US authorities refused to grant Khan’s request for a laptop computer to be used while in jail stating that it would be a potential security breach at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre (MCC). In denying the request, the US said that instead of a lap top, if Khan really needs to use a computer he could use a configured one at the MCC with no access to the internet.
On January 16, Khan appeared at a bail hearing and was denied pre-trial liberty following lengthy arguments over several weeks.
The judge said then that he must be held without bail and continued to deem the case a complex one. The businessman has since filed an appeal against the decision to deny him bail.
The prosecution has argued that it has close to 800 pages of evidence on Khan; wire taps and witness testimony from Guyana and persons in the US who have been around Khan while he allegedly ran his drug trafficking organisation. Khan also faces a superseding indictment which the judge requested be presented to her by the next court date scheduled for late February.
