Within the past years a large number of illegal weapons have been seized by the police and while there are efforts on the part of the local ranks to trace their origin and how they end up here, a Caribbean-based network which will soon become reality will help in this regard, says Crime Chief Seelall Persaud.
Though tracing is being done, persons in the security field believe that there needs to be greater effort on the part of the police to protect our porous borders, prevent these illegal weapons from entering Guyana and ending up in the hands of criminal elements.
Persaud, in a recent interview, told Stabroek News that one of the projects in the making under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) is the Integrated Ballistics Information Network. He explained that with the network, when an unlicensed gun is found in the participating countries, ballistics information such as the signature on warheads will be entered into a central database. He said that this information will help to show among other things the movement of weapons from country to country.
The CBSI brings together all members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the Dominican Republic to, jointly, collaborate with the United States to tackle a wide range of security and criminal threats to the Caribbean Basin.
According to Persaud, when illegal weapons are recovered, there are a number of things that happen immediately. He said that the first step is to conduct a ballistics search to see whether the weapon has been used in Guyana as well as to get a proper identification of the weapon. Next, he said, a data check is done to ascertain whether or not it is licensed here. Persaud explained that if it is not a licensed then in Guyana, a check is done to ascertain its country of origin. Once that information is obtained, he said, it is then circulated to Interpol and regionally to see if there is any information on it in any other country.
Persaud told this newspaper that an eTrace is also done and in some cases contact is made with the Guyana-based Brazilian federal police liaison officer, who would conduct checks. (According to ATF online, eTrace [Electronic Tracing System] is an internet-based system that allows participating law enforcement agencies to submit firearm traces to the ATF National Tracing Center (NTC). Authorized users can receive firearm trace results via this same internet web site, search a database for all firearm traces submitted by their individual agency, and perform analytical functions.)
He explained that if it is found to be a Brazilian-made weapon, law enforcement counterparts in Brazil would do additional checks to ascertain who it had been issued to, what became of it and how it may have ended up in Guyana. He said that local police have not been able to do all this with the US, while noting that Brazil has gone a bit further than providing the basic information.
Asked where most of the weapons originate, Persaud said that most are found to be US and Brazilian made. “That is just the country of origin but we don’t know which country they come into Guyana from,” he said, while explaining that the weapons may have been distributed legally, then carried into another country or countries before they end up illegally in Guyana.
Meanwhile, former police commissioner Winston Felix said in an invited comment that during his tenure illegal firearms were traced through their serial numbers and though persons filed them off, ranks were able to recover them using a chemical process.
Persaud, in speaking on this issue, told Stabroek News that for last year 24% of the illegal guns recovered had their serial numbers filed off and police used a process to retrieve those numbers.
According to Felix, while he cannot speak on what is happening now, in the late 70s early 80s, one could have traced the firearm through the serial number. Once the police are in possession of that number along with the make and other information, he said, there is an international system which can be activated to trace the origins of that particular firearm. “Whether or not it is still in use, I don’t know,” he said. “I know for a fact that there have been traces. Successful traces.”
Recounting one of these successful cases, Felix said that ranks could have traced the firearm down to the person who bought it and where they bought it from. He said that the tracing of a firearm can only come from the serial number even though you would have information on the make of the weapon. “So the serial number is the important identification mark. If you don’t have a serial number, you have a make, you have the manufacturer but suppose if you have manufacturing agencies in Brazil with the same make? You need a serial number to know where it came from. Which one of the manufacturers it came from. So the serial number is central to identification,” he stressed.
Surprise operations needed
Felix acknowledged that a lot of handguns and shotguns do come from Brazil. He said that coming from Brazil and coming through Brazil are two different things. Felix noted too that there is another set of weapons coming from Cayenne. He recalled that during his time in the force, ranks had intercepted a number of weapons at roadblocks on the Corentyne coming through Cayenne and Suriname. He recalled that in the 1990s, while he was in charge of Berbice, a man was intercepted at the Number 66 foreshore with a bag containing about 12 handguns.
He said, “the fact that our borders are porous and not properly covered, the surprise operations and roadblocks as well as information and or intelligence gathering are the only enablers to intercept illegal firearms entering the country.”
According to Felix, illegal firearms are not easy to stop but with a good patrol system, operations and the ability to surprise, “we definitely can intercept a number of those entering.”
Responding to a question as it relates to the lack of ranks to do this, Felix said that though there may not be enough ranks, a force must always do its best to have patrols. “It might be very tight sometimes but the only way that you can serve your purpose or your mandate is to at all times have surprise road blocks and intelligence gathering.”
He said the Rupununi represents a different picture because of its vast landscape. He explained that in the dry season, it is open to “all sorts of vehicles entering and leaving without the police even knowing.” He added that there are some points where one can cross over the Brazil/Guyana border in the South and North Rupununi area unseen. He said that not only do the police need vehicles in this area to effectively cover it but also mounted patrols. He said that having mounted police come with added arrangements and responsibilities as one has to not only look at taking good care of the horses but also ensuring that there is a good relationship between the animal and the rider.
“The mounted police would serve a very useful purpose,” he stressed, adding that their presence at certain places at certain times would give the police the advantage. At the same time, he said, there would be need for proper resources including hand held radios that can operate at long range.
He noted that ranks moving between Aishalton and Lethem in the dry season could take about three hours but in the wet season it would take more than a day. He said that people don’t really understand the expanse of territory between police stations in that area.
Felix said it would be uneconomic to have police based at the place where they are not needed when they could be utilised in another area. The territory is open to exit and entry without any hope of interception by security forces, he further said. “It is wide between Lethem and the nearest police station, north or south…,” he said.
There have been recent cases where unlicensed firearms were found. A 9 mm weapon with matching rounds was found at the scene of the Trevor Rose shooting a week ago and what is clear is that the weapon is illegal. A police official told Stabroek News that the spent shells recovered from the Eccles area where the shooting took place did not match what had been recovered. It was originally thought that the gun might have been dropped by the gunman but with this new information this may not have been the case. The official said that records were checked and it was discovered that Rose, a local entertainment promoter, was not a licensed firearm holder.
One of the survivors of that shooting, Troy Nieuenkerk has since said that from all indications, Rose seemed to have known his killer. Asked about the recovered gun, the crime chief told this newspaper that the ballistics analysis is still being done.
Two weeks ago, two teenagers were allegedly caught with an M-16 rifle, sixty-one .233 rounds of ammunition, a concussion grenade and a fragmentation grenade at Aubrey Barker Street, South Ruimveldt. Kevin George, 18, of 21 Castello Housing Scheme and Samuel Johnson, 17, of 158 Curtis Street, Albouystown were later charged and are currently on remand. It is unclear how much information the police have so far gathered in relation to these items.
In 2012, an eTrace submission was made in relation a cache of arms which was discovered in Tabatinga, Lethem. The 10 automatic rifles, based on ballistics tests, were not linked to any crimes here but based on the eTrace results they had passed through several countries, including the United States.
