Four Guyanese soldiers in arms racket probe

GEORGETOWN — Four soldiers of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) remained under arrest yesterday in connection with an arms sale racket that was discovered when a high-powered M70 rifle was reported missing last weekend.

Under investigation are three privates and a lance corporal. Their alleged crime has come just when the GDF and the Guyana Police Force are more jointly involved in combating escalating crimes across the country and hunting down criminals armed with AK-47 rifles and other sophisticated arms.

A businessman of the Berbice county is also being sought by the army following the confession of the lance corporal that he had transacted the sale of the M70 rifle. Once apprehended, the businessman will be handed over to the police to face charges.

The lance corporal was taken into custody on Sunday night, according to a report in yesterday’s Stabroek News, following the arrest earlier of three of his colleagues, who are privates in the army.

No names have been released. But the arrests resulted from a report that an AK-47 and M70 rifle were missing and later found in the barracks of the Coast Guard underneath the mattresses of two of the soldiers now in custody.

A fully loaded magazine with some 30 rounds was also found in a cupboard assigned to one of the soldiers also under arrest.

An unidentified GDF source has been quoted as saying that the discovery of soldiers being involved in a arms sale racket was most disturbing in view of the sophisticated arms in the hands of some of the dangerous criminals who have been on the rampage of killings, hijackings and criminal violence over recent months.

At least two wanted men killed during shoot-outs with the security forces were ex-soldiers of the GDF.

Eight policemen have been murdered for the year at the hands of criminals while in the line of duty, and another was shot at the weekend in a drive-by shooting while he was manning traffic in Georgetown.

Abducted taximan murdered in Trinidad

PORT-OF-SPAIN — A 34-year-old taxi operator, Ramesh Seelochan, who was abducted last week, has been found dead, his partially decomposed body showing bullet wounds to his head.

Seelochan went missing since last Thursday night when he left for work as a taxi operator. When he failed to show up the next day and there was no trace of his taxi, the police launched an investigation.

But it was not until Sunday that they stumbled on his body some distance away from his home. His hands were tied behind his back and he appeared to have been shot at point-blank range to the back of his head.

There have been some 52 cases of murder in Trinidad and Tobago for the year and 16 cases of kidnappings, among them a businessman and his wife who were murdered last week.

Montserrat murder suspect surrender

PLYMOUTH — The murder suspect in last week’s killing of St Lucia-born businessman in Montserrat, Simeon Sealy, has surrendered to the police and was expected to be charged by last evening with the offence.

Steve Mollyneaux, a former employee of Sealy, who managed the Carib World Travel Agency, turned up at the police station here following appeals from his mother and the police who were searching for him since the shooting death of the businessman.

A former criminal deportee, Mollyneaux is also facing charges for holding as hostage Jamaica-born Camille Grey, an employee of Carib World Travel Agency. She was later released and the hijacked car of Sealy abandoned by Mollyneaux.

The death of Sealy, who was married to the Montserrat parliamentarian, Rosyln Cassel-Sealy, is reported to be the first murder in the island for over 10 years.

UWI/PAHO Health Care Symposium

BRIDGETOWN — A symposium featuring some distinguished academics and health specialists of the Caribbean is being organised in the name of one of the region’s most prominent icons in the health sector — Barbados-born Sir George Alleyne, director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO).

The joint effort by PAHO and the UWI School of Clinical Medicine and Research, is being planned for November 6 at the Teaching Complex of the Cave Hill campus as the Distinguished Sir George Alleyne Symposium, said Professor Henry Fraser, dean of the school.

A high point of the symposium will be a presentation by Sir George, who is retiring from PAHO at year-end after serving two consecutive terms at the helm of the hemispheric organisation. He will share his vision for health care in the Caribbean region.

Papers will also be presented by Dr Peter Figueroa, director of the HIV/AIDS Unit of Health, Mona Campus of the UWI, and Professor Terrence Foster, director of the UWI Tropical Medicine Research Unit.