As police continue their investigations into the activities of a criminal gang based at Craig, East Bank Demerara, the High Court yesterday granted the police more time to keep the almost one dozen men they arrested in custody.
Contacted yesterday afternoon, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum told Stabroek News that earlier in the day the police applied for an extension to keep the men detained and one was granted until Monday.
According to the force it may have made a major breakthrough in a number of high-profile investigations when they cornered alleged gang leader and wanted man Rolston Morrison and the eight men in an apartment at First Street, Craig. A “shoot-out” with a 25-member SWAT team resulted in the death of Morrison and an alleged gang member being wounded. A policeman was also wounded during the exchange.
The police seem certain that they have crushed the criminal enterprise whose members were “hired hands”. Based on the detailed confessions given by two taxi drivers, persons would contact Morrison when they wanted a crime committed. The two men have related during interrogation how they planned the armed robbery on mall owner Ganesh Ramlall and subsequently transported the killers including Morrison to and from the businessman’s La Jalousie home. Doubts have been raised by other police sources that Ramlall’s killing was a robbery. They have argued that the modus operandi doesn’t fit at all and it appeared to be an execution-style hit..
Asked yesterday when the men are expected to be charged, Blanhum would only say that the investigations are continuing while stressing that the court has granted the police additional time to facilitate further investigations.
Sources told Stabroek News that investigators are convinced that they are “onto something” and are working hard to tie up all the loose ends.
In addition to the Ramlall matter, Morrison and the other detained men are being implicated in the execution of Nandy Park resident Travis Rudder, which resulted in serious injury to a toddler and his mother, and in the recent armed invasion of a judge’s home.
Blanhum had told reporters on Wednesday that these three matters all form part of one large investigation. He had said too that police were seeking four other persons.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that more arrests are likely to be made soon.
Police had said in a press release on Tuesday that the Force, working with a concerned citizen was able to track several persons wanted for the murders of Ramlall at La Jalousie, WCD, and Rudder at Nandy Park, EBD, and the armed robbery on the Judge at her home at Felicity, ECD, to a house at Craig.
At about 0200 hours, the police said that its SWAT team was deployed along with detectives to effect the arrests. The police ranks came under fire during which a Constable was shot to his right thigh. The injured Constable and other ranks returned fire fatally wounding one suspect and another suspect was shot and injured to his abdomen and is under guard at the GPHC.
Seven other male suspects who were in the building have been arrested and are in police custody.
In a release after the SWAT operation, the police had said that a 9mm Glock pistol with two magazines and twenty five matching rounds had been recovered during the operation along with two wristwatches that were suspected to have been stolen.
Ballistic tests on the weapon have confirmed that it was used in the two murders. The two watches have since been confirmed as belonging to the judge and her husband.
The couple was badly beaten when a gang of armed men invaded their home after tying up their security guard. The men escaped with a suitcase and a safe but dropped them after they came under fire from a security guard attached to another house in the area.
Based on the information gathered by this newspaper Morrison and the other men were gathered at the home for a party. When police descended on the area they surrounded the house and approached from every angle. Residents said that the police kicked down the door and opened fire. They have disputed the police’s version that there was a shoot-out.
