As police continue to interrogate Collin Jones – an alleged member of a gang responsible for plots aimed at getting back at the government – they have now arrested his mother and younger brother.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday confirmed that police arrested Jones’ 17-year-old brother on Monday night. The man, according to him, remained in police custody yesterday assisting with investigations.
This newspaper was also reliably informed by a senior police source that Jones’ mother was taken in for questioning by police.
Over the last few days, the source explained, Jones has given police information linking several persons to the activities of the gang in which he operated.
Jones, Persaud also said, is being questioned by investigators about a series of incidents including several which occurred in Georgetown. The man, he explained, is being questioned about the highway murder of Woodette Roberts, the fires at the Supreme Court and Richard Ishmael Secondary, and the attack on the barrack at the Brickdam Police Station and the East La Penitence police outpost. These incidents occurred last November 4.
When asked whether police were also questioning Jones about the murders of Kurt “Glasses” Thierens and Adriano Tracey, the crime chief stated that the man was being interrogated only about those matters which he outlined above. Jones was also wanted for the Ministry of Health (MoH) fire on July 17, 2010. He and Thierens were arrested and subsequently escaped from police on July 28, 2010.
Two men suspected to be apart of the gang responsible for the MoH fire are also said to be on the run. However, the crime chief told this newspaper yesterday that what he did know was that police were looking for a number of other men in relation to the incidents.
Based on information which Jones reportedly divulged to police, after he and Thierens, who had also been hauled in for questioning in relation to the July 17, 2009 Ministry of Health (MoH) fire, escaped from police on July 28 last year, they spent a brief period in Suriname. It has not been established whether there were other persons with them.
They subsequently returned to Guyana and then set up a camp at First Savannah, Kara Kara Creek (about 15 miles from Linden). The group, based on what Jones reportedly told investigators, had been hiding at the location for about 16 months. Last Thursday Jones was spotted for the first time in the Amelia’s Ward area, a shoot-out followed between him and police during the wee hours of Friday morning, he was wounded and subsequently apprehended by police.
Jones later led police to the Kara Kara Creek location where he showed them two shallow graves where Thierens and Tracey were buried. Investigators had also been searching for Tracey last July for questioning in relation to the MoH fire. However, they never issued a wanted bulletin for the man.
At the Kara Kara Creek camp and the Amelia’s Ward location police found three AK-47 rifles, a quantity of ammunition and other accessories. The rifles, Persaud said, were not obtained locally and a trace is currently being done to determine where the guns came from. Persaud said yesterday that no new information is available on the rifles.
Meanwhile, Jones has also told police that the gang was being financed and supplied with arms from a US source. This man, Persaud said, has been operating under several identities supported by forged documents and police are not sure of his real identity.
This newspaper has since learnt that the last known location of George Lashley, one of the men for whom a wanted bulletin was issued in relation to the MoH fire, was the US. However, the crime chief has declined to release details on Lashley.
When Stabroek News visited Lashley’s Freeman Street, East La Penitence address which was provided by police in a wanted bulletin last August residents told this newspaper that they had not seen the man “in quite a while”.
“I know that man was in the army for a long time…I haven’t seen him since after the Ministry of Health fire that much I can remember,” a resident said.
