President Bharrat Jagdeo has called on supporters in the United States to assist government in tracking down a man who he said is wanted by police here and was involved in a series of “heinous crimes” in this country.
Referring to the wanted man as, “Tookie”, the President said he has been hiding out in the US and has managed to elude capture despite assistance from the US authorities.
Jagdeo’s call for assistance came as he was addressing supporters in Queens, New York at a sponsored event on Friday last; the event drew a vocal protest from opposition supporters.
According to Vishnu Bisram, who was present at the event, Jagdeo said that Tookie made phone calls to notorious criminal, Rondell ‘Fine-man’ Rawlins and opposition elements in Guyana. According to him, the President also charged that criminal activities in this country have been financed by Tookie and others from abroad.
It is unclear whether the President used an alias when he spoke of Tookie, but the name did not surface here when the authorities announced they were tracking criminal links overseas some two years ago. A senior police officer told this newspaper yesterday that a Guyanese man now based in the US and, who goes by the name Tookie Brown has been on the radar of local law enforcement. However, he was unable to say whether the police had issued a wanted bulletin for a Tookie Brown. Tookie Brown has connections to the drug trade in the US and is reportedly living in Brooklyn, New York, the officer said. “He has been on the radar for a long time,” he continued, adding that Brown is believed to have links to certain people here.
Following the Ministry of Health fire in July 2009 government pointed to a criminal mastermind in the US and had sought assistance in tracking him down; the individual was never named but shortly after a wanted bulletin was issued for George Lashley, an overseas-based Guyanese.
Lashley was believed to have the US-based link that was supporting the gang responsible for the Ministry of Health (MoH) fire and a string of attacks in the city in November 2009. Police here have not confirmed or denied whether Lashley is wanted in connection with those crimes. In fact, the authorities here have refused to answer questions on Lashley.
