Two Guyana Defence Force officers are in Grenada assessing the condition of the Island Princess with a view to bringing it home, so that the police here can process it for evidence.
This new development came less than a day after the release of three persons, including a prominent businessman, who were questioned about the disappearance of the cargo vessel and the subsequent discoveries of the gutted bodies of three crew members. A fourth crew member is still missing.
The coast guard ranks arrived on the island on Thursday evening and up to mid yesterday afternoon were at the Grenada coast guard base where the vessel is moored.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud confirmed when contacted that the army had sent a team to the island but according to him “they have gone to check on the seaworthiness of the vessel’.
Asked if the team will bring it back to Guyana once it has been found to be seaworthy, Persaud said that when that time comes a decision on that will have to be made.
Speaking on the status of the investigation, Persaud told Stabroek News that the three men, inclusive of a funeral parlour owner, who were arrested earlier this week, had been released. He said they would have been arrested based on information that police would have received.
It is still unclear how the trio has been linked to the boat but several sources have said that a vessel the businessman owns was moored at a Friendship, East Bank Demerara wharf after the Island Princess disappeared. The Island Princess was to have returned to that very wharf.
The Island Princess along with her four-man crew disappeared on September 26; the last known location being the mouth of the Essequibo River.
It is suspected that Mahendra Singh called Sunil, Ryan Chin, Rickford Bannister and Titus Buckery Nascimento made up that crew.
The following week, three decomposing and gutted bodies washed up in the River and based on items recovered the bodies were identified as Chin, Singh and Nascimento. The body of Bannister who was the security guard aboard the vessel is yet to be found.
After the discoveries, police mounted an investigation and sought the assistance of Interpol and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Two Mondays ago the vessel was found drifting off the coast of Grenada by the DEA and the following morning it was towed to shore and boarded.
The vessel was found to be flooded with water and two passports and pieces of clothing were discovered.
Members of the Royal Grenada Police Force forensic department reportedly found nothing to suggest that something sinister occurred on board.
The vessel’s diesel had been mixed with water and it was eventually towed to the coast guard base, where it is at present, while contact was made with the police in Guyana and the owner of the vessel Errol Prince.
Several police sources had told this newspaper that there was a drug link between the disappearance of the vessel and the subsequent murder of three of its crew members. They said that the manner in which the men were killed was reflective of the drug trade and had questioned who would have wanted to kill them in such a way and for what purpose.
Both the owner and Rohan Paul called `Jango’ who was in charge of the vessel at the time it disappeared had strenuously denied that the incident had anything to do with drugs.
Local police in looking at all possible angles to aid in their investigations had contacted Interpol and DEA for assistance.
