Taken all together, the drive-by shooting in Cummings Lodge that claimed five lives, the gruesome murders of two gold dealers in Bartica, the spate of killings in the interior and the innumerable armed robberies represent a crime flood in the affairs of the state.
It makes a mockery of the assurances of the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Clement Rohee and the Guyana Police Force. The country has been in the midst of a serious crime crisis for many years now and the failure of the government, the minister and the police to recognize it and treat it as such rises to the level of gross dereliction of duty.
While the heinous attack at Cummings Lodge stands out, it is but one of dozens of similarly macabre assaults claiming multiple lives in the period since 2002. Yet, the government and the police have not bestirred themselves from the stupor of ignorance of the contractors of these killings or their incapacity to do something about it.
The September 4 attack, in particular, imperils the state because of the attributes and organization of its killers. From the outset, the killings were not the ordinary variety of shoot-and-grab but the settling of a towering score in a manner calculated to exact the maximum revenge and instil fear in every other person knowledgeable about these dealings.
What does it say of the state and its law enforcement arms when cold-blooded killers can set their sights on targets without any concern for the murder of innocents? Fiona Singh and her son Neil Jupiter were caught in the crosshairs of murderous gunfire that had nothing to do with them. The impunity that claimed these lives is a burden that the Jagdeo administration ignores and simply allows time to paper over.
From the operation it was obvious that the killers had done their job in a manner that the police can learn from. The likely target, Mr Steve Jupiter, had been trailed to the place where Ms Singh had been visiting relatives and an ambush was laid. Two cars were utilized by the killers who were clearly leaving nothing to chance.
On the departure of the Jupiters et al from the residence, savage gunfire erupted killing four on the spot and leaving Ms Singh in a critical condition. She passed away hours later. After the fusillade, as in the majority of these cases, the attackers melted away having successfully completed their task.
As with the reign of the phantoms from 2002 onwards, it is clear that well armed gangs in the employ of the drug trade are flourishing. They are either being ignored by law enforcers or completely inaccessible to them. Their high-voltage firepower also remains out of the clutches of the police and the question of where the AK 47s are coming from persists.
It is of little use for the Police Commissioner, Mr Greene to reconstruct after the fact that the slaughter might have been caused by missing cocaine. The Police Commissioner is either listening to idle gossip or is admitting that it is only upon the commission of a bloody massacre like this that information becomes available and not before. Either way, the police force and the rest of the law enforcement establishment appear impotent. If the police and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit really had their finger on the pulse of the drug trade, Mr Jupiter and his cohorts should have been busted with the cocaine in their possession.
A week later, the police appear no closer to solving the Cummings Lodge mayhem. Some of the usual suspects have been held but that would hardly impress crime-weary Georgetown nor should the residents of this country have to continue putting up with this incompetence. There are two clear and repeat messages from this attack: well-armed narco-terrorism/death squads are on the prowl, capable of inflicting massive damage at will, and once a target is selected for death the police become immaterial. Second, in light of the credible charges that it has co-operated with narco gangs in the prosecution of the crime fight and its inability to reel in and successfully prosecute major drug dealers, the government will come under increasing suspicion of being fundamentally compromised by organized criminals. This will have reverberations in every other sector of governance and may explain the anecdotal and perceived high levels of corruption here.
Increasingly, as time goes by, it appears that the murder of the former Minister of Agriculture Mr Satyadeow Sawh had little to do with the criminals who were on the rampage at the time and more to do with the death squads operating at the behest of organized criminals. Even this appears to have had little impetus on the Jagdeo administration to professionalize the law enforcement services and to seek expert help from the US DEA and other agencies or to tap into the security aid which had been offered by the UK.
A dangerous game is being played by the government in relation to organized crime and unfortunately a high price is being paid by ordinary folk. It is time for the government in the remaining months of its administration to take a hard line on the drug trade and its associated criminality or run the risk of going down in history as completely ineffective or worse complicit by omission or commission.
