Days after they were arrested for questioning in relation to the theft of supplies from the Ministry of Health’s drugs bond at Diamond, East Bank Demerara (EBD), a doctor and retired Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer remain in custody.
Sunday Stabroek was reliably informed that the suspects, who were arrested last Wednesday, were in custody up to yesterday afternoon. It is unclear whether the police were granted an extension to further detain them over the weekend after the 72-hour period in which they coiuld be held without charge expired.
One of the suspects has reportedly admitted that theft of drugs from the bond has been ongoing for a number of years.
The prime suspect in the investigation, 22-year-old bond attendant Terrence Williams, was remanded to prison on Friday after he denied a total of five charges, including the unlawful possession of guns and bribery.
Williams was arrested last Monday afternoon after the firearms and ammunition along with a large quantity of cash were found in a vehicle registered to him at the bond. It is the suspicion of the police that he along with others stole and sold a quantity of pharmaceutical products and other medical supplies from the bond.
He was taken into custody after the police, who were responding to a report of larceny at the bond, carried out a search on a car, PAB 3032, and found one duffel bag which contained a 9mm Luger pistol and two rounds of 9mm ammunition, a .380 pistol with a magazine containing seven matching rounds of ammunition and a total of $4,580,000 in cash, including US currency. There were 20 rounds of .380 ammunition in the side pocket of the bag, the police also said.
The police had reported that Williams was cautioned on the offence and then attempted to offer a bribe to a rank to secure his freedom.
He was taken to the Golden Grove Police Station Criminal Investigation Department (CID) office and while being questioned about the unlicensed firearms and ammunition, the police said he requested his bag and he withdrew and offered the police investigators $1,750,000 cash to forego the said charges.
At this point, the police said that he was told of the new offence committed – Corrupt Transaction with Agent – cautioned and he replied “Well sir tek de whole bag a money all I want is me freedom”.
A number of other Health Ministry workers were questioned and detained over the alleged larceny but were later released due to insufficient evidence. Police Commander of Region 4B, Senior Superintendent Mahendra Siwnarine had told this newspaper that at this point the quantum of items stolen is unclear. However, Siwnarine said the police are hoping that this will be determined during the MoH’s routine inventory check.
“Actually it was information that this was happening but we don’t have anything solid to go by. We didn’t recover anything,” Siwnarine had said.
