Up to late last evening there was still no sign of missing boat captain, Mohamed ‘Saeed’ Yusuph, 61, of Rosignol, West Bank Berbice who was tossed overboard by pirates..
One of the pirates involved was captured yesterday and the stolen boat recovered.
A search team yesterday located the boat in a “hideout” 10 miles up the Corentyne River. A quantity of fish, glue, gasoline and other items that were stolen from another boat belonging to Nakool ‘Fyah’ Manohar have not been found.
The team received information that the pirates were in a house on the Corentyne and when they checked they apprehended the man and handed him over to the police at the Springlands station.
The four masked pirates who carried two guns attacked the crew members around 8 am on Wednesday.
Owner of the boat, Latchman said the pirates first removed a 60-hp engine from his boat and replaced it with a 48-hp engine that had been stolen from him only last week and left their boat anchored.
They then ordered the other men into the fish pen and commanded Yusuph to “drive the boat to Suriname.”
Yusuph then told them that his heart was hurting and he needed his pills from the cabin. One of the water bandits went to check for it but came back empty-handed.
Another pirate then removed his mask, identified himself as ‘Knight,’ and pushed Yusuph overboard.
He then told the workers what he had done but by the time they ran out to check he had already disappeared in the water.
Yusuph had grabbed the engine lead in the process and the boat was unable to move. Manohar’s crew members, without realizing that the boat was being robbed decided to go to their rescue.
The pirates then robbed them of a large quantity of fish, fish glue and a drum of gasoline worth over $2M.
They also took the lead and used it on Latchman’s boat to escape and destroyed Manohar’s engine, leaving both sets of crew members stranded in it.
Manohar said a worker who had stashed a cell phone called and inform him what happened and he immediately went out to sea and took an engine for them.
He saw the hijacked boat but was afraid to confront the pirates because he did not have a gun. They travelled behind them for over one hour until it got dark and they lost track of the boat.
He said they had called for the coast guard but they did not respond until Thursday afternoon. When they finally came out their fiberglass boat suffered a leak and was left canting on one side at the No 43 koker. They left and returned later to “watchman the boat.”
Manohar said he provided the fuel during the search while the No 66 fisheries assisted the team with a boat.
