The hit-man business

On Thursday evening as he pondered his problems under a shed near his Mon Repos business place, a gunman walked up to 41-year-old Rajendra Sonilal and mercilessly pumped four bullets into him. Mr Sonilal, a salt fish producer, had no chance and succumbed. The hit-man melted away into the darkness, conveyed to safety by a waiting car.

Execution-style killings carried out by hired guns are commonplace in many parts of the world, and so there is no risk that the government and the police force could be accused of allowing a novel type of crime to thrive here.

What is however significant is that since the prison-break in 2002, an increasing number of ‘hits’ have been carried out by a variety of killers against a range of targets; some well-known, some not so well-known. The common factors in the killings were the intent to murder, the availability of hit-men and a plan for execution.  And successful plans there have been. To our knowledge, none of the execution-style murders have been so rigorously investigated as to yield the conviction of the triggerman, the exposing of the person who procured the murder and the unravelling of the planning. This failure is what the government and the police force can well be faulted for. There has been gross ineptitude and incompetence in addressing these crimes and this poses serious danger to many people.

Some of the better known cases include Gaz Nabi in April, 2006 and the cycling coach Max Pereira and his wife Marlis Archer in October, 2006. It was believed that contracts were placed on the trio by persons close to them. To date, four years later, there has not been a single tangible shred of evidence gathered by the police to make an arrest. In cases of this type at least two or more people are involved, and if properly investigated there should be a breakthrough. It would mean that the killers in these two cases would have had four years to completely efface any trace of their entwining in these crimes.

Aside from these high-profile cases, there were numerous others that were clearly hits and possibly many more which were masked by various subterfuges so as not to appear as contract killings. Earlier this year, the slayings of Vibert Weeks and Nicholas Hoyte fell well within the modus operandi of contract killings, and yet again the police have been hopelessly at sea on these. No results have been forthcoming, no arrests have been made and the trail grows cold. In any properly functioning democracy, this lack of results would have eventuated in the removal or stepping down of those who were culpable or in positions of responsibility. Apparently, however, being on good terms with the government conveys Teflon protection that even President Reagan could never conceive of.  

Apart from failing to intercept these plots before they are consummated, police incompetence has made easy targets of many persons by being unable to masterfully investigate these murders and to present persuasive evidence to the courts that would secure convictions. There is therefore nothing to dissuade the hit-men. The sobering truth for all Guyanese is that no one is immune to malevolent persons taking it upon themselves to commission murders. Who are these hit-men? Where do they come from? By what means are they paid? How have they avoided detection and capture? These are matters that the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Rohee, and those in the security sector should be ventilating in public and addressing to reverse these pernicious crimes and to bring the guilty to justice.

The second point of concern is that the framework within which the police investigate these crimes remains as rudimentary as it has been over many years. With the progressive breakdown of the police’s ability to investigate in the manner that real investigators do, the police are completely at sea. There is no semblance of modern investigative techniques and the complete loss of the public’s confidence has made it impossible for the police to secure leads on the triggermen and the procurers. In other jurisdictions triggermen and their handlers have been snared by the painstaking gathering of evidence, eventually leading to a convincing case being made and persons associated with the plot breaking ranks to avoid the ultimate charge of murder.  

Eighteen years after they won the mandate to govern, the PPP/C is still unable to present a modern forensic lab to assist with investigations. Sure, one is now being built and should be shortly unveiled under IDB assistance. It is very late in the day and the lab won’t function properly without the human intelligence that the police force seems incapable of marshalling within and without the force. While DNA testing has become par for the course in many parts, the police are still unable to access this because of a lack of local capacity and the cost of processing results abroad. DNA testing could easily solve many of the murder investigations that the police force has botched hopelessly, like the Ramenauth Bisram case. How much easier it would have been to have gathered DNA evidence from the murder scene placing suspects incontrovertibly there instead of the primitive beating and torturing that was eventually administered causing the entire case to collapse perhaps irretrievably.

But back to the Sonilal case. With more leads than political parties contesting a general election, what will the police do to prove to the public that they can be taken seriously? The calls that Mr Sonilal received and made that day should be the starting point. Of course, the police have failed miserably with similar leads in the past – the Lindo Creek massacre stands out famously. The visit by Mr Sonilal to Lethem should be instantly retraced to determine what transpired as his state of perturbation was heightened upon his return. Narrowing down what type of vehicle was used for the escape and its possible route is also on the agenda, and if the police were able to swiftly lock down crime scenes and their immediate vicinity this should not have been a problem.  The alleged debtors to Mr Sonilal would also be persons of interest as would his business connections in the export arena. The police do not inspire confidence in their approach to these cases. It is this malaise that could have led to murders ranging from those of Agriculture Minister Satyadeow Sawh to hairdresser Ms Shenese Richardson-Austin.  Can the police make a dent in the hit-man business?