The murder of Ricardo Rodrigues at the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC) George-town, on Monday afternoon may have been linked to a “weapons for drugs” trade that went sour, sources yesterday said.
Rodrigues, 40, called ‘Fatman,’ who had addresses at Bel Air Gardens, and Bel Air Village, Lamaha Gardens, was fatally shot by a group of men, numbering between four and five. Three other persons, Aubrey Henry, Michael Hopkinson and Jean Le Blanc, were wounded in the shooting and they were rushed to Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where they were later admitted.
Henry was yesterday discharged and the two others are listed as being in stable condition. The shooting occurred close to 3 pm at the Albert Street sports club, where there is a gym and a restaurant. Rodrigues had been a patron of the restaurant at the time he came under fire.
When Stabroek News visited the scene yesterday, everything seemed normal, except for a table damaged in the shooting, a bullet hole in an upstairs glass window and broken sections in the woodwork. The restaurant appeared ghostly as there were no patrons. In the gym, which is separated from the restaurant by wooden lattice work, there were a few young men who could be heard discussing the shooting. The gym’s manager said that they had not officially reopened and that the persons present were “a few of us who brave it and come out.”
Smuggled
“You have to understand, as with everything there is more to what meets the eye… at Lethem, there is a very thriving trade where guns [are] smuggled over the border from Brazil and to Colombia in exchange for dust (cocaine). Some of these weapons are also used here to carry out some of the most heinous crimes and other things right here, right here (in Guyana)… this arms find would have opened a whole can of worms,” a source yesterday told Stabroek News.
The “arms find” the person was referring to was the discovery of an arms cache in Lethem at the start of the month. At Tabatinga, Lethem, police found four automatic rifles along with four magazines and 389 rounds of 7.62×39 calibre ammunition; six M-16 rifles along with two magazines and 74 matching rounds; two shrapnel hand grenades; an Icon VHF radio set; an Icon hand-held radio set; and a roll of camouflage material on October 1. Police had issued wanted bulletins for Rodrigues and his cousin, Clive King, after the find. Rodrigues surrendered and was released after habeas corpus proceedings were filed on his behalf. King has been in hiding since the discovery and it is believed he fled the country to Brazil.
The source told Stabroek News that certain persons at Lethem trade in guns with Brazilians and this had been going on for many years. The source said that the guns are then traded with Colombians in exchange for cocaine. “You don’t owe the Colombians. It don’t matter if is today or tomorrow or next year or next ten years, them people don’t forget. They is give a long rope but when that done is done you done. He de owe some people and get warning, that’s why he used to walk with he boys and always had he thing(gun) on he,” the source added.
“Ironic, though it is, that some of the same things these weapons were used for was carried out on Fatman and makes you wonder boy, was it for the money he owe or was it to shut he up on what the weapons is used for because dead man tell no tales?“ the source questioned.
Dedicated
A relative of the dead man remembered him as being very friendly and a dedicated father to his children. “Don’t worry with the picture painted that he was this bad person. If you got to know him, you would know he don’t play with his family, especially his children… He used to free up and plenty of the persons running their mouth now benefitted from his kindness, because if he had it and you want it, he gave,” the relative said.
Asked about his connection with jailed drug kingpin Shaheed Roger Khan, the relative said, “He never talked about his business or personal life. He was very quiet and reserved but loving I tell you… I am not concerned who his friends were, everybody get bad friends, he was no different,” she said.
In early 2006, Rodrigues was named as a close associate of Khan and a wanted bulletin was issued for him when the police went after Khan. His brother, Paul Rodrigues, was also a close associate of Khan and was caught with the drug kingpin in Suriname, before Khan was rendered to the US. Rodrigues was named in US court documents as being part of Khan’s notorious ‘Phantom Squad,’ which is said to be responsible for numerous killings here.
In 2007, the police had issued wanted bulletins for Rodrigues and others for questioning in connection with a variety of matters.
In 2010, a bulletin was again issued for him along with others in connection with a slew of high profile murders. The men turned themselves in and after being questioned were released on $100,000 bail.
Police Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday confirmed that Rodrigues was a licensed firearm holder. He said that police had recently seized his weapon but he had used the High Court to retrieve same and his request was granted. Near to his body on Monday was a semi-automatic gun. It is unclear if the gun near to him was the one he was licensed to carry as it is not the type usually licensed.
Persaud added that investigators were working with some information, and when asked if his death might be linked to the recent Lethem arms bust, he said that they have not yet ascertained a connection.
Persaud, when questioned about the disparity between police reports that there was a lone gunman and that eyewitness accounts indicating that at least four men carried out Monday’s attack, said that the information dispatched by police was what they had gathered from their investigations. He said that persons wishing to give additional information may do so.
