Nearly three years after…

It has been almost three years since 30 AK-47s were smuggled out of the Guyana Defence Force’s (GDF) armoury at Camp Ayanganna and so far at least 17 of the high-powered rifles have been recovered, the alast one being found on James Gibson, who was killed during a shootout with police at Cromarty foreshore the week before last.

When the AK-47s along with five pistols vanished from the base camp in February 2006, army officials had said that everything would be done to ensure they were all recovered.

Efforts made over the course of three days last week to garner information from the army on the exact number of missing AK-47s recovered as well as to find out whether any of the five pistols had been found, proved futile.

In the months following the discovery, the army in collaboration with the police conducted numerous raids across Georgetown, the East Coast Demerara and Berbice.

During these raids, the homes of several suspected drug dealers were targeted and cocaine and illegal weapons were seized.

The raids intensified in March 2006 when the Joint Services swooped down on the Blue Iguana Night Club and two other night spots in the city in an operation that that led to the discovery of illegal guns and ammunition, the arrest of several persons and the detention of 175 vehicles, some heavily tinted and others with questionable documents.

The Joint Services also targeted drug accused Roger Khan’s known businesses in the city and his D’Aguiar’s Park residence and deployed a team to Kaow Island in the Essequibo River where he owned a sawmilling operation, in their search for the weapons.
Police had expressed an interest in four men, including former policeman Lloyd Roberts and Blue Iguana owner Royston Peniston.

Though none of the army’s weapons were recovered during this operation, which lasted several days, many persons were charged and placed before the courts. This was biggest operation launched in search of the missing weapons although other searches on a smaller scale were subsequently conducted.

In March 2006 also, the police had expressed an interest in Gerald and Maryam Perreira, who were said to be associated with the Joint Initiative for Human Advancement and Development (JIHAD). They said the Perreiras were wanted for questioning into the missing weapons and had asked them to make contact with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). It is unclear if that contact was ever made.

The army later expressed interest in several persons, including some of its former members, saying that it wanted them for questioning into the theft.

It was based on calls put through to the army that releases were issuing saying that it was interested in two past members – Oliver Hinckson and Gibson. Neither of the men made contact with the army but they were later found in a house on Aubrey Barker road. The two were then jointly charged with possession of firearm without a licence and placed before the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

As the GDF continued its investigation into the missing weapons, Lieutenant Colonel Tony Ross, who was in charge of the armoury at the time the guns disappeared, was charged and court-martialled. In May this year, a military jury found him guilty of failing to effectively manage the army’s weapons’ store resulting in the theft of the weapons.

Ross was initially charged with four counts of negligence of duty for the theft of the weapons but was freed of two of the charges, which were more administrative in nature.
The GDF had quashed an earlier court-martial of Ross following President Bharrat Jagdeo’s appointment of several officers to the top posts of the military last year.

Meanwhile, most of the weapons were found in the hands of criminals connected to the Buxton-based criminal gang. In addition to Gibson, one of the weapons was found on Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins after he and Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles were killed in August this year. Two AK-47s were found with the men when their dead bodies were removed from an unfinished concrete structure in Kuru Kururu, where they were fatally injured during a shootout. The Joint Services had confirmed that one of the weapons was from the army’s missing batch.

In October 2007, Seon Collier, 26, also known as ‘Picture Boy,’ who was wanted for killing his best friend and a brother was nabbed while fast asleep in a house at Bachelor’s Adventure, East Coast Demerara. An AK-47 rifle which was found with Collier was said to have been one of the GDF’s weapons.

In March, 2007, based on information received members of the Joint Services swooped down on a house at Lot 190 ‘B’ Church Street where they recovered one of the stolen weapons. It was found in the upper flat of the building with part of its butt sawn off. Five occupants of the house were arrested. According to reports, an army officer used to frequent the property.

In 2006, a total of 13 AK-47s were recovered on separate occasions.
In November 2006, one of the army’s AK-47s was found in the possession of alleged former Buxton gang-member Anthony Charles, called Kussum, who was shot dead in Bachelor’s Adventure during a shootout with members of the Joint Services.

In September 2006, police got a tip-off from an unknown caller who informed them that some of the missing guns were at a location in West Coast Berbice.

An operation was launched and a bag containing three AK-47s was discovered, two of which were later confirmed to be from the army’s missing batch.

Eight AK-47s belonging to the army were recovered from the bandits who had stormed the commercial banks at Rose Hall in Berbice in August 2006. These bandits were all killed in armed confrontations with the Joint Services over a period of three days.

Months after the weapons went missing the first one was recovered in a clump of bushes on the East Coast Demerara Railway Embankment between Melanie Damishana and Enterprise.

Another weapon was found on a dead bandit who was part of gang which raided two houses in Canal Number Two Polder, West Bank Demerara.

The man who was described as having dreadlocks and wearing black military-type clothes was found dead in a canal at Resource, Canal Number Two Polder with the AK-47 strapped to his body.

Residents had said they believed the man drowned after he became entangled in thick weeds in the waterway and could not free himself because of the heavy gun and ammunition and military-type boots he was wearing. The man was never identified.