Soldiers leaving the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) base at Tacama, Berbice River are rarely searched, making the smuggling of grenades or any type of arms an easy task, a source has said.
“It is very easy to get them [arms] out of there. Soldiers aren’t searched when they leave the training base. A grenade is smaller than a Fruta can, so they can put it in their backpacks and move with it,” the source, who is familiar with army procedures, told Stabroek News.
On Monday evening, the GDF said that a Warrant Officer is under close arrested after a deliberate plan to steal grenades from the Colonel John Clarke Military School, at Tacama was uncovered. The grenades, numbering 40, were found in two boxes aback of the accommodation housing the senior training staff, contrary to force regulations which prescribe that grenades not in use are to be kept in the arms and ammunition stores. An investigation is continuing to determine if there are other perpetrators, the army said, while adding that all the grenades issued to the training base have been accounted for.
The source said that when a soldier leaves the base, he/she is only asked if there is anything to declare, such as arms or ammunition. “They will only search you if they have reason,” the source stated, while adding that soldiers can either make or opt not to make declarations and then they are sent on their way.
The training base can be accessed either by land or river but the land route is preferred because it is shorter and the army has no boat to ply the river route, the source said. It was explained that soldiers travel to Linden, then travel to the Ituni Road and then onto the Tacama trail, which only members of the army are authorised to use. The training camp, this newspaper was told, can also be accessed via the Berbice River but it is easier to use the trail.
The source told Stabroek News that the Warrant Officer who was held is responsible for all the arms on the training base and has full control of the storage room where all arms are kept. Up to press time, he was still under close arrest and no additional persons had been held.
Soldiers are not authorised to go to the storeroom; it is the Warrant Officer who is responsible for moving arms from the storeroom to the training sites. He is also responsible for making a record of every transaction and reporting the inventory to Base Camp Ayanganna. For example, the Warrant Officer would send a record of how many grenades detonated and how many did not. The source said that GDF Base Camp Ayanganna would then send an engineer to the Tacama Training Camp to take care of those that did not explode. “They try to detonate all. If they can’t then the engineers have to come,” the source said.
In a recent interview, the Crime Chief told this newspaper that the small number of grenade discoveries over the years has been no cause for concern despite the high potential for violence using grenades. Retired army colonel Carl Morgan, meanwhile, linked grenades to criminal gangs.
