Information associated with the registration of a helicopter, allegedly stolen from the Venezuelan military and stored at a hangar of Roraima Airways since 2018, have been handed over by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), which is investigating the case, according to Public Works Minister Juan Edghill.
“There is a claim that a helicopter that was stolen from the Venezuelan military and found in a hangar at Roraima…SOCU had written requesting that a number of persons be interviewed and documents be provided. We are in full compliance with the investigations,” Edghill, who has responsibility for the aviation sector, told Sunday Stabroek when contacted
“The names of all personnel responsible for the registration [of the helicopter were] handed over…,” he added.
The minister’s update came in response to questions posed by this newspaper to National Security Advisor Gerry Gouveia, the then Chief Executive Officer of Roraima Airways and who has distanced himself from the case.
In early October, sources told this newspaper that a complaint was made to Guyanese authorities that a helicopter stolen from Venezuela was parked in a hangar at Ogle. It triggered an investigation by SOCU, which Edghill said was still ongoing.
Asked about the issue, Gouveia said that while he was in charge of Roraima Airways at the time the helicopter first was parked in the company’s hangar, his son, Gerry Gouveia Jr., also an executive of the company, had asked that it be parked there for his friend Michael Brassington.
“So Michael Brassington is a person who was actually managing what was going on with that machine. All we did was to give the aircraft parking,” he said.
Gouveia gave background into what he knows about the issue and how the chopper came to be on the property that he was managing at the time, even as he emphasized that his company had no role in its being brought here or plans for what would happen after.
He has told this newspaper that he is no longer a part of the operations of Roraima Airways as he has given full control to his two sons.
After building the company for 30 years, Gouveia said that he felt that his children were capable of building it even further. He said he believes now that his role is to give back more to the country, which he is very passionate and patriotic about.
“As you know, I am not involved in day to day operations [of Roraima Airways]. When it first came to my attention, when I first knew that this helicopter came to Guyana, because it first came to Guyana in 2017 or 2016… it had nothing to do with us. It never came to Roraima. It went to the GDF hangar. This helicopter came into the country and it was parked at the GDF hangar at Timerhi all along,” he contended.
“Then my son Gerry mentioned to me that there was a request to move the helicopter and he wanted to park it at our hangar, and he didn’t have a problem with it. He didn’t have a problem with that request. I think it’s Michael Brassington who was basically managing [it]. Hopkinson [prominent gold miner Shawn Hopkinson], I believe, was the other man. When it came into the country, it was registered to Hopkinson. So that all the documents, Civil Aviation went through all the documents and processes and issued the local registration for this helicopter and this helicopter was at the GDF,” he added.
According to the National Security Advisor and former army captain, “the GDF apparently had expressed an interest in buying it and then they changed their mind”.
He did not give any detail into the reasons why the army had a change of heart.
Efforts by Sunday Stabroek to contact former Minister of State and then Defence Board Secretary Joseph Harmon proved futile as calls to his number went unanswered.
Gouveia said that after the army’s disinterest, Hopkinson took control of the aircraft.
“Hopkinson took it over. So it was sitting at Timerhi all the time and then the request was made if they could bring it and park it at our hangar and Gerry didn’t have an objection . He just gave them a space to park it. There was no financial transaction. This was just a favour he did for them.
“…I stayed [an] arm’s length [away] of course. I don’t get involved in it. My position is that the police or whoever it is, [they] investigate it and do their work. But whoever it is that brought the helicopter in the country in 2017 and who went through the process [will answer]. When Civil Aviation will register an aircraft, there’s a tremendous amount of background checks that have to be done. To make sure that the helicopter and airplanes generally [are compliant] is a very stringent process; of changing registration from one country to the next country, from one owner to the next owner, and so on and so on. So Civil Aviation went through all of that, but it really had nothing to do with Roraima, other than the fact that we, my son, give them permission to park the helicopter there until, well whatever they wanted to do with the helicopter,” he added.
Asked if his company ever expressed an interest in purchasing the aircraft, he said no.
“No! No! Never! Absolutely not! Never! Never! Never! For me, personally, it was the Venezuelan helicopter And I, and from a Roraima standpoint, I’d be very skeptical of getting [into that],if my son had called me and said he wanted to get involved in it. All he wanted to do was to park it. Not get involved; not get Roraima involved because whatever it is [that] happened , Hopkinson had made the decision to do that with his business, not ours, not ours,” he stressed.
Gouveia explained that parking the helicopter for Hopkinson would have also not been peculiar as one of the gold miner’s islander airplanes is usually parked at Roraima’s Ogle hangar.
The National Security Advisor believes that the investigation will clear him and his son’s company.
“I think right now there’s an investigation going on with it and they will find [out]. They will have to trace how this helicopter came in the country back then. For a helicopter to come in, it would have had to have security clearance from Cabinet, it would have had to have security clearance for customs to clear it, and then [permission from] Civil Aviation to register it and register with a Guyana registration,” he said.
