Kitty businessman to face stolen weapon charge
Number showed up on cell phone
Stabroek News
August 19, 2002
The Kitty businessman, who was apprehended by members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and handed over to the police, is likely to be charged with being an accomplice in the purchase of an illegal weapon stolen from the GDF.
The 31-year-old man of Dowding Street, Kitty, was nabbed on Friday evening after soldiers found him hiding in a house at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara.
His arrest came as a result of an intensive investigation launched by the GDF after four of their ranks were placed under arrest over the sale and attempted sale of weapons.
Another man, Mohamed Shaharrudin called `Plantain’, of Corriverton was nabbed during a police/army operation early Monday morning at his home.
He said since been charged with simple larceny of an M70 rifle and an AK-47 assault weapon. He pleaded not guilty along with another Berbician, Salim Bacchus, who was arrested during the same exercise and was charged with three counts of unlawful possession and harbouring illegal immigrants. The two illegal immigrants, Amanda Sueli Dos Santos Vale of Brazil and Yohan Soekha of Suriname, both pleaded guilty to entering Guyana illegally and were sentenced to one week and one month imprisonment respectively, upon the expiration of which they shall be deported.
Stabroek News was told yesterday that the Kitty resident’s number was found in the cellular phone of one of the persons entangled in the investigation and after a statement was taken from the man the army launched a search for the businessman.
An army source told Stabroek News yesterday that depending on what the Kitty businessman tells the police the GDF would either decide to hand the four ranks over to the police or court martial them.