Amid allegations that government granted permission to drug accused businessman Roger Khan to import spy equipment, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon yesterday said he played no part in any such transaction and he said he had no idea where the item was at the moment.
Speaking for the first time on the issue, which surfaced in court documents in New York where Khan faces trial for drug trafficking, Luncheon while admitting that his government did business with Khan denied he ever signed any document authorising him to import the equipment or colluded with him in the conduct of criminal and corrupt activities.
“I doubt that in any forum the fact that lands have been sold and leases provided to an individual constitutes the kind of linkage being suggested,” Luncheon, also Secretary to the Cabinet and Defence Board, said in response to a question on the state being on the verge at one time of granting a large tract of forest to Khan. A senior associate of the drug accused told Stabroek News that an official in the government had signed the authorizing letter for the purchase of the spy equipment which the Guyanese businessman later used to tap into the phones of several security officials here.
Luncheon told a press conference yesterday that the administration has since requested from the US Justice Department information with regards the transaction, but had not received any response as yet. Khan who was first found with the equipment capable of tracking phone calls and tapping into conversations back in 2002 had subsequently used it to tape telephone conversations between now retired Police Commissioner, Winston Felix and others. His lawyers are claiming that he bought the equipment from the Spy Shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with permission from the Guyana Government. Stabroek News had contacted the businessman’s lead attorney, Robert Simels on the issue but he said he would not comment.
In a subpoena to the US Drug Enforcement Admini-stration, Khan’s lawyers stated: “FBI agent Justin Krider investigated Khan’s purchase of the computer telephonic surveillance equipment from the Spy Shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and found Khan had permission from the Government of Guyana to purchase and possess this equipment.” Simels is seeking the testimony and all documents in Krider’s possession as these relate to the surveillance equipment purchased in Florida. In a background paragraph, the subpoena says that Khan is alleged to have used the equipment to improperly wiretap various high-ranking officials and others within Guyana in order to maintain his “alleged drug organization.” The equipment was seized in December 4, 2002 by an army patrol and turned over to the police.
Khan was later tried in the local court and freed, but since then there has been no public information on what happened to the equipment and many questions posed to officials by this newspaper on how the equipment came into the country and what happened to it after the court case went unanswered. Asked about the whereabouts of the equipment yesterday, Luncheon said he had tried to ascertain its location a few years ago, but got nowhere with it.
Stabroek News was told that following the seizure the equipment was confiscated and handed over to the government. It was then passed back to Khan at a later stage and similar type of equipment was handed to the police under the guise that it was the one that was seized. At one time the army had said that it had turned over the equipment to the police but the police later seemed not to know of its whereabouts. Reports had indicated that the laptop was capable of intercepting and tracing telephone calls made from a landline or a cellular phone and the software is reportedly only sold to governments. At the time, then Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj said the use of the instrument did not breach any of the laws of Guyana.
Strict
In a statement two weeks ago on the spy equipment, Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee said the US, like most countries, “has strict export controls on the sale/export of such items. He said in Guyana such sensitive electronic items could only be procured and imported for the exclusive use of law enforcement agencies, adding that such a request by the law enforcement agencies of Guyana would have to be approved by the relevant authorities before an application is made by the Government of Guyana to the relevant American authorities. “The Ministry of Home Affairs asserts that it did not authorize the importation of the electronic equipment under question nor did it seek any approval of the US authorities for an export licence for the item.”
In its 2006 narcotics strategy report, the US State Department said that drug traffickers appear to be gaining a significant foothold in Guyana’s timber industry. It noted that in 2005, the Guyana Forestry Commission granted a State Forest Exploratory Permit for a large tract of land in Guyana’s interior to Aurelius Inc., a company controlled by “known drug trafficker” Shaheed Roger Khan. Such concessions in the remote interior may allow drug traffickers to establish autonomous outposts beyond the reach of Guyanese law enforcement, the report stated.
Asked how the government could now distance itself from Khan when it had more or less granted a forest concession to him, Luncheon said when allegations are being made about the administration’s and Khan’s links it is not in the context of him being given leases, something which is provided for in the law. “It is that there was some collusion with government and Khan in carrying out criminal and corrupt activities and to this we have distanced ourselves,” the HPS declared. Khan had said in several statements issued while on the run back in 2006 that he used his money and intelligence to assist the government in fighting crime and preventing an overthrow of the administration. He later said that he employed a network of former and current police officers at the time along with ex-convicts to hunt down criminals. It was during this period that death squads were in operation and were said to have killed over 200 Guyanese.
On whether the administration had had dealings with Khan as a businessman, Luncheon replied in the affirmative, pointing out that once someone approached the administration and a lease was granted they would know of the person. “We don’t deal with ghosts…” Luncheon asserted that there is absolutely no doubt that on the question of business Khan was known to the administration as he had to deal with state agencies such as Land and Surveys and the Forestry Commission during which he had to present himself, credentials and bona fides.
When it became known that Khan was to be granted a forest lease there were queries as to whether he was an appropriate investor. The Forestry Commission later said the lease was never handed over and that in future tighter due diligence would be done when considering applicants for leases.
Khan is charged with an eighteen-count indictment of distribution, importation, and possession of cocaine and engaging as a principal administrator, organiser, and leader of a continuing criminal enterprise in New York and elsewhere. He is accused of heading a powerful, violent, cocaine trafficking organisation out of Guyana. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted. The revelations by the US government in its court case against Khan have riveted local attention. A witness for the US is likely to testify when the trial starts that a phantom gang linked closely to Khan was responsible for around 200 killings. It has already been stated by the US in court documents that Khan was responsible for the murder of national cyclist, Devendra Persaud and boxing trainer Donald Allison. Khan has denied this in court proceedings.