Defence Board Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon is not in a position to pronounce on the ownership of the bulldozer which was found abandoned on an illegal airstrip recently, 80 miles upriver from Orealla.
Commenting on the matter again at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing on Friday following questioning from reporters, Luncheon said that up to his last Defence Board meeting on Wednesday, discussions on the matter had not concluded.
“We have a trail that suggests it passed through many hands but we have no complete information on who is the owner and holder of its registration,” Luncheon said.
He said the Defence Board was in receipt of names of “owners historically” but was still trying to pinpoint the current owner.
He said the board was not certain of the age of the piece of equipment, its capacity, or cost but was sure that it was serviceable.
This newspaper had learnt that two Corentyne businessmen, one of whom had been accused in the past of having connections with the drug trade, have been linked to the bulldozer.
Police in Georgetown had held three foreigners – two Colombians and a Venezuelan, who were arrested at a city hotel – in connection with the illegal airfield. However these men have since been deported, a police source informed Stabroek News.
A high-ranking military official had told this newspaper that investigators have since been able to trace the bulldozer to a businessman who claimed he had sold the heavy-duty machine to another man. Last week Luncheon told the media that the bulldozer might have been transported to the location on a barge. He said it was one of the angles investigators were looking at, adding that there was a wide trail from the river leading to a camp, which suggested that it could accommodate the large equipment.
A representative of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority had visited the area last week to inspect the burnt-out aircraft.
The Guyana Defence Force believes that the illegal airfield which its troops destroyed on Monday was being operated by foreigners with local collusion to facilitate trafficking of narcotics.
In a statement on Monday the GDF said the airstrip had a burnt-out aircraft with a Venezuelan flag on it, a still smouldering all-terrain vehicle and a bulldozer, which was in the middle of the airstrip. The military said it believed that the airstrip was constructed to facilitate transshipment of narcotics.
The airstrip was sighted during a routine flight by a GDF pilot who was flying lower than normal. The GDF statement said there seemed to be extensive construction work at the airstrip since it was some 3,600 feet in length, which is longer than the Ogle aerodrome, and 375 feet in width, wider than Timehri runway. However, only some 1,800 feet of it was usable and the construction seemed geared to upgrading the remainder of the airstrip. After seizing the airstrip GDF troops conducted several probing patrols and discovered a 25-ft trail that led for two miles to the Corentyne River, suggesting that the bulldozer and other equipment might have been transported via the river.
