Cattle rustling is the most prevalent crime in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and the police in the division lack the needed resources to proactively respond.
“We have many cattle farmers there, that is why we are having this problem in our region,” the Police Commander of Region Five, Senior Superinten-dent Kurleigh Simon, disclosed on Tuesday during his appearance on the Guyana Police Force’s weekly Police and You programme.
According to Simon, the police receive at least two to three reports of cattle rustling every week.
Simon explained that the cattle ranches are situated off of the public road and the division does not have the necessary resources to access the areas where they are located. “All the ranches are off the main road, deep down in the backdam. One of our limitations is accessibility and that is because of not having a mounted section or the required motor vehicle to traverse the backlands,” Simon noted.
However, he said ranks in the division try to be as “diligent as possible” in monitoring cattle transit. In doing this, Simon said, the vehicles transporting the animals are checked and the animals are examined for branding.
“…That’s persons buying animals, transporting them from one area to the other. We try to be as diligent as possible in terms of checking those vehicles and the animals that are in there for branding to ensure that they have proper ownership and so forth,” he said.
Simon highlighted that there are high number of instances whereby persons are unable to claim ownership for their animals because they fail to brand them within the stipulated time, which is within six months of birth.
When this occurs, he added, identification of the animals by any other feature is not accepted by the police. “If someone else brand sthe animal, you cannot come and say you know it by colour or whatever the case maybe. That does not give the police enough information to work with,” Simon said.
As a result, he noted that most times the animal in the dispute is lodged and a report is compiled for legal advice on the way forward.
“Sometimes based on whatever evidence we were able to unearth, it may come back and say charge or sometimes they say let the parties take private legal action. Or, they say keep the animal in police care and put it up for auction sale,” Simon explained.
Simon further stated that because of the high level of cattle rearing in the region, the roads are prone to animals frequently wandering on to them, which sometimes result in vehicular accidents.
The Commander said that getting the animals off the road is a responsibility of the Stray Catching Unit of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
He was unable to say whether this unit is still active.
However, he noted that the police would sometimes impound the animals and the owner is required to pay a fee before the animal is released.
In situations where the animal might be involved in an accident, Simon added that the driver involved is permitted to carry the animal to the police station. “What you find is that most times, many of these animals are unbranded and as such you cannot establish ownership,” Simon said.
Another major crime in the region, Simon said, is marijuana trafficking.
Simon, a former head of the GPF Narcotics branch, said that Region Five serves as a transshipment point for the transport of marijuana since it is situated between Region 4 and Region 6.
He explained that information suggests that while the police have conducted a number of seizures at roadblocks, persons have been using the backlands as a “short cut” to prevent the police.
“…It is an area that we are monitoring. We do conduct our raids and so forth,” Simon said. He added that proposals have been made to upgrade the marine capability in the region so that ranks would be able to carry out river patrols.
The proposals are pending approval, Simon said.
