Nothing would lift the spirits of crime-weary Guyanese more than the knowledge that the Guyana Police Force is making extraordinary progress in its fight against ruthless criminals who have blazed a trail of murders and violent robberies. In this respect, the operation launched by the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit on a houseful of crime suspects at Craig on the East Bank Demerara last Tuesday would have been welcomed by those who have been clamouring for results. The appearance by the SWAT team itself is a triumph. An earlier attempt at the establishment of such a unit had collapsed in ignominy after the expenditure of much money and resources when several of its members were found to have been compromised. Years later in October 2013, another attempt under the former Home Affairs Minister Mr Rohee was greeted with much scepticism. Would it work? Would the trainees be able to acquit themselves creditably? Training ensued during 2014 but there was no sign of the unit in action. Critics had earlier pointed out that this country’s crime challenges did not require a specialized SWAT team. So when it appeared on Tuesday morning, the SWAT team manifested the culmination of an arduous process to have it up and running and available. There is still a long road ahead but an important step has been taken.
The operation itself appeared to have been conducted by a full strength SWAT team and resulted in the death of one man, Rolston Morrison who had been wanted in connection with a murder on the East Coast and who the police say was the suspected leader of a den of bandits, and injuries to another suspect and a policeman. Eight men who were at the residence at the time of the raid have been taken into custody and interrogations later led to the arrest of others. Permission has since been sought from the High Court to extend the stay of the men in custody for the police to conduct more investigations.
Ultimately, what the Guyanese public will want from this operation is a series of air-tight charges against the suspects pertaining to murders, armed robberies, robberies with violence and conspiracy all backed up by an abundance of plausible evidence. In other words, this operation must mark a point of departure from the culture of unintelligent and crude policing. It will be a challenge.
Dead men tell no tales and in his passing any number of crimes can be pinned on Mr Morrison without a hint of evidence. That won’t however be an acceptable outcome, the police must do much more work to credibly establish that Mr Morrison was indeed the leader of a criminal gang. A series of brutal crimes including those of the murder of Regent Street mall owner Ganesh Ramlall at La Jalousie on the West Demerara and the attack on a land court judge and her husband at Felicity on the East Coast of Demerara have been attributed to this gang dismantled at Craig on the East Bank. It is quite a breathtaking range and a wide geographic expanse to range over. Mr Ramlall’s killing in particular did not fit the pattern of a mere robbery. Six bullets fired at him – likely from more than one weapon – and then the removal of his jewellery is a bit far-fetched but not impossible. For what was reportedly intended to be a straightforward robbery with no apparent expectation of a large amount of valuables it seemed to be an inordinate risk and extremely violent for a gang with supposed experience in these matters.
There were also other features of this operation that raised question marks. The police themselves cited a ‘concerned citizen’ as being instrumental in providing intelligence and assistance in these matters. Intelligence from members of the public is standard fare for policing although given the erosion of the relationship over the years between the force and the public the police may have apprehended this as extra special. Nevertheless, the mention of the concerned member of the public would naturally lead to anxieties about whether there was some outside interest driving this matter and trying to shape a particular outcome. There was also the not insignificant matter of a $5m reward for information on the killing of Mr Ramlall which appeared in the Kaieteur News without making clear who was putting this reward up. Will members of the SWAT team/other sections of the force be taking up this reward? If so it would raise serious questions about propriety and whether law enforcement will break from an unflattering past where money and private agendas dominated rather than the public interest.
There were two other features of the ongoing investigation that are either indicative of extreme and welcome efficiency or the seeming intention to steer the investigation. The first was the same-day ballistic testing of a gun that had been recovered from the Craig operation. It would later be learnt that this ballistic testing showed that the firearm had been used in the slaying of Mr Ramlall. Guyanese have become accustomed to days passing by and on other occasions much longer before ballistic testing was done and the results disclosed. Best practice would suggest that all of the evidence from the scene of a major operation is properly secured, labelled, inventoried and examined prior to being subjected to a series of forensic and other tests. Careless handling and custody of evidence has been a major deficiency in High Court cases. Also on the same day, the judge in the Felicity attack was asked to identify a watch which had been recovered from the Craig scene. Again very unusual but perhaps a new dispensation.
In the coming days the police will be expected to provide as much information as possible on the charges that will be preferred and the manner in which this gang carried out its work and whether the masterminds have been apprehended. It must also dispel any concern that external forces are influencing how it is conducting very important operations like these. In addition, the public will expect similar efficiency and precision in targeting major drug traffickers. The embarrassing cocaine in prawns find in New York recently has not resulted in any charges here despite the numerous leads that must exist from the point of the packing of the cocaine in the pawns up to the exit of the shipment from a local port. Given the time that has elapsed there is almost no prospect of a major arrest. Why?
