– as probe continues
The Guyana Police Force is sifting through the information that has been submitted to the team investigating the criminal activities of drug convict Roger Khan — reputed head of the infamous ‘Phantom Squad’– during the years 2001 to 2006.
Head of the team, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud, told Stabroek News recently that the force received information from “several organisations” but because some of the names provided on the many lists date back from 2001 and before they now have to sift through them and create “a master list.”
Publicly, the Guyana Human Rights Association and the PNCR have submitted lists to the police. Persaud did not say whether investigators would be doing any follow-up with the organisations that submitted names.
Asked by Stabroek News how members of the public had responded to the call for information and how many persons had dialled the numbers the police listed in their announcement of the investigation, Persaud said he was not in a position to say as he did not have that information in front of him.
He also repeated that the force is awaiting a response from the US authorities to a request for information on Khan’s alleged killings in Guyana.
Asked if the force is also seeking information from the US on former army major David Clarke, who was sentenced to time served last week Friday in Brooklyn, Persaud would only say that they are awaiting information from the US.
Clarke, who was expected to be one of the main witnesses at Khan’s trial as the two had trafficked in narcotics together, once headed an army operation in Buxton set up to quell the criminal upsurge in that village. His case has been one of the more secretive drug cases involving Guyanese in the US, as most of the information is under seal. And while most persons have been deported or will be deported at the end of their sentences he and his family have been allowed to stay in the US.
As it is right now, the police said they have received no concrete information linking Khan to any criminal activities in Guyana.
Khan pleaded guilty to trafficking in narcotics to the US during a period when he was operating several businesses here. Khan has also been accused by the US authorities of being involved in several murders including those of talk show host Ronald Waddell, boxing coach Donald Allison and Dave Persaud.
Khan was able to recruit several then serving members of the force. Most of those officers are no longer in the force but are not in hiding. One was charged with murder and is incarcerated.
Three days after Khan’s October sentencing in a Brooklyn Federal Court to 15 years in prison for drug trafficking, witness tampering and a 16-year-old gun running charge, the police announced their intention to set up a special unit to investigate the charges that he had been directly or indirectly involved in killing locals.
‘Did not say’
According to the crime chief the information the investigators have received so far “did not say that Roger Khan killed anyone.” He said submissions included names of persons who would have died way back in the nineties and asked whether Khan was even in the country at that time.
The police now have to sift through the information and check on the status of the investigations into those deaths and to ascertain among other things whether persons have been charged in connection with the murders.
“We are acquiring the different files… initially to see what was done in the investigation and we will revisit to see what else can be done,” Persaud told Stabroek News.
From the submitted data, the investigators would also compile a different list of deaths that occurred between 2001 and 2006 – the period when Khan operated his drug empire and had allegedly murdered a number of persons. That list Persaud referred to as the “master list.” He said that is their first priority.
US prosecutors had said that Khan operated a drug trafficking enterprise here for more than eight years, during which he headed the violent ‘Phantom Squad’ that was responsible for many deaths.
The US government had charged that a significant amount of the cocaine distributed by Khan went to the Eastern District of New York for further distribution. As an example, it cited a Guyanese drug trafficking organisation based in Queens, New York, which it said was supplied by Khan. The Queens organisation was said to have distributed hundreds of kilos of cocaine in a two-month period during the spring of 2003.
The US government said it agreed to a plea bargain with confessed drug trafficker Roger Khan in part to protect information about other targets of the investigation.
Khan had publicly said that he worked with the security forces to stem the crime wave following the 2002 prison break.
The force called “on all individuals, organisations or groups who may have information or vital evidence concerning these alleged murders involving the Fineman gang, Roger Khan’s gang or any other gang or individuals who may be involved to come forward and provide whatever information or evidence that may be available.”
It named Persaud as the person to contact and asked persons to dial telephone numbers 225-2227, 226-6978 or 225-8196.
Khan had resided in the US and had committed crimes in both Maryland and Vermont. On January 6, 1992 he was convicted in Montgomery County for breaking and entering and theft. While he was on probation for that offence, he was arrested in Burlington, Vermont for receiving and possessing three firearms while being a convicted felon. He was subsequently indicted and was released on bail in November 1993.
He promised to obey all conditions of his release but fled to Guyana in 1994 in order to avoid prosecution and as a result there is an outstanding warrant for him for violating the conditions of his partial release and an outstanding warrant in Rockville, Maryland for violating the conditions of his probation.
