The fishermen who were arrested and kept at the Anna Regina Police Station in relation to cargo found on their boat believed to have been taken from the sunken vessel Stollie 1, have been released.
According to reports, the men were being detained at the Anna Regina Police Station because officers initially thought that the cargo found on their boat belonged to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
They were released on Wednesday afternoon.
However, Brian Gilbert, who is looking after the matter for the owner of the Stollie 1, which went down between the Pomeroon and Waini rivers last Saturday, said a team of men went to the Anna Regina Police Station on Wednesday and identified the articles as having been on their vessel.
The fishermen were arrested after the cargo was found on their boat and the captain failed to make an appearance to the Harbour Master.
Though Trevor Stoll, the owner of the Stollie 1 feels that something is not right because of the captain’s strange actions, police investigating the matter said that the evidence had not pointed to anything being amiss.
Gilbert said they are concerned that the captain’s connections with certain persons may hinder their chances of finding out precisely what transpired.
Gilbert added that Stoll has not yet found the vessel. He said that since the accident the captain has not made any contact with the owner.
He added that there is also Global Positioning System (GPS) inside the vessel and they have also made attempts to reach the captain to get the GPS reading, their attempts were unsuccessful. Nor were they able to contact the crew members who were on the boat.
“We have contacted police at Anna Regina Station and we asked them to at least get precise directions of the vessel’s location from the captain, so we can find the boat, a group of us are going up today,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert said that the vessel was transporting approximately $80 million in cargo with approximately $10 million of it belonging to Stoll. He said the cargo which the fishermen, who were also the rescuers, found should have sunk if the vessel went down. He is puzzled as to how the men got their hands on the cargo.
