The PNCR says there is enough conclusive evidence in the public domain to warrant an investigation into the activities of confessed drug trafficker Roger Khan.
“Court records from Khan’s preliminary hearing into charges made against him for trafficking in cocaine to the United States have detailed the criminal and illegal activities of Roger Khan,” the party said at its press conference last week.
Khan is awaiting sentencing in New York having pleaded guilty to trafficking in some 150 kilos of cocaine and he also reversed his not-guilty pleas to charges of witness tampering and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The PNCR said Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon’s declaration that there is need for conclusive evidence that criminal and other unlawful activities took place in connection with Khan’s business dealings in Guyana before an investigation could be launched, proves that he “lives in a parallel universe”.
“It’s a difficult question to answer off the bat,” Luncheon had told Stabroek News when asked whether there would be an investigation into Khan’s businesses. “But I would say this [if] information is provided to the administration that conclusively shows or establishes that in his business dealings and in his activities in Guyana criminal and other unlawful activities have been taking place, prosecution would of course flow.”
The PNCR noted that the records in the American courts have alleged that Khan was responsible for the deaths of Donald Alison and Dave Persaud and also named Khan as heading a “paramilitary squad that would murder, threaten and intimidate” other Guyanese citizens. The US officials had also said that Khan’s squad was responsible for at least 200 extra-judicial killings.
The party says it is its confirmed belief that more than sufficient evidence existed for some time for the Commissioner of Police to have ordered criminal investigations into the activities of Khan in Guyana.
“The PNC is concerned that this investigation has not been undertaken yet. Every indication suggests that the Jagdeo administration is doing its best to frustrate such investigation…,” the party said.
It said it is not the first time the administration has frustrated efforts to hold Khan accountable for his crimes as when former Commissioner of Police Winston Felix decided to put an end to Khan’s criminal activities he was “hounded from office and sent into retirement.”
Prior to fleeing to Suriname after there was an attempt to arrest him in 2006, Khan himself placed newspaper advertisements in the Guyana Chronicle and the Kaieteur News stating that he had been involved in crime fighting in Guyana and had worked closely with local and US law enforcement officials.
The now dead George Bacchus, a self-confessed informant for a group which had targeted suspected criminals for execution, claimed that its formation was in response to the upsurge in violence. The then home minister Ronald Gajraj was linked to the group by Bacchus, but was subsequently cleared of any involvement by a Presidential Commission of Inquiry.
