While the plane found abandoned at an illegal airstrip in Region Nine on Monday had nothing illegal on board, sources say it was apparent that it was a part of a “guns-for-drugs” trade that has being ongoing in Guyana’s underworld.
On Monday, the Ecuadorian-registered 421 Cessna plane was seized at an illegal airstrip at Pirara, way off of its projected pathway, repainted and with its registration number changed.
Civil aviation air traffic controllers received their last “garbled” radio contact the day before from pilot, Brazilian national Gonçalo Ferreira Lima Neto, 41, who is still being sought by local law enforcement authorities. He had departed the Ogle airport on Saturday afternoon bound for Boa Vista, Brazil.
A source told Stabroek News yesterday that from all indications, the plane’s colour and registration was changed to fly into Colombia. It was there they said that it would have offloaded arms received at the Pirara location that would have been smuggled from Brazil to be delivered to Colombia drug cartels in exchange for cocaine. They said that the trade is nothing new as it had “been going on for years.”
Transport Minister Robeson Benn told Stabroek News that the plane is at a military base and is being guarded. He said that further updates will be given today.
Benn told the media on Monday that the pilot not only gave wrong location coordinates to aviation authorities but “did not arrive where he should have arrived and explanations given did not gel with what was seen in terms of the activities at the aircraft and also too in terms of where he should have been when he gave certain explanation to where he was when he called in [on Sunday].”
The plane was searched by members from the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force. One of the members involved in the search said that nothing illegal was found on board. Questioned if paint was found, given that the plane’s colour was altered, he said “there wasn’t even any evidence of paint. The job (painting) was neat, it wasn’t any amateur thing,” he said.
Minister Benn had informed that two months ago, the aircraft, which bore registration HCC1K, stopped in Guyana as a “technical flight,” after takeoff from Trinidad en route to Brazil. During the period it was here, it underwent mechanical repairs at the Ogle Airport. Sources at the Ogle Airport have said that when the plane came to Guyana, it was manned by another pilot. His nationality is unclear.
The plane took off from Ogle last Saturday, around 12.29 pm, with Gonçalo alone on board, destined for Boa Vista, Brazil. It was around 3.40 pm that Civil Aviation Authorities here listed the craft as missing after several communication attempts went unanswered.
From then through Saturday evening, aircraft were put on alert to look out for the missing plane and authorities in Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname were notified. Aerial searches by the police and other authorities of strips along the intended flight plan, failed to locate the plane but a sighting came at Pirara on Sunday. With the help of the military the plane was recovered on Monday.
