By Kevin Lindon
Caribbean Net News Guyana Correspondent
Email: kevin@caribbeannetnews.com
GEORGETOWN, Guyana: Guyana’s most wanted fugitive Rondell “Fineman” Rawlins was sighted in Christmas Fall, Kwakwani, a community some 300 miles up the Berbice river.
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| Rondell “Fineman” Rawlins |
Following interrogations of a number of suspects and intelligence-led operations, local police came into contact with the notorious gangs on Friday evening, while a Joint Services (army and police) patrol that was in the area came under fire and responded.
At the end of a heated shootout, the police were able to kill one of the criminals, who is yet to be identified.
A Joint Services press release said the other gang members, who include wanted men Rawlins, Richard Ramcharran otherwise known as “Uncle Willie”, among others, escaped down a slope and disappeared into the jungle. Trails of blood found suggest that others were injured.
“The gang members were housed in a location with four buildings in a desolate area in the jungle and had foodstuff to last several weeks in a large kitchen which also had a gas stove, generator and solar energy,” the release explains.
Police say that in addition, there were six portable tents, four hammocks, three mattresses, a mini-stereo system, a DVD player, a cell phone, a hand-held radio set, items of clothing, medical supplies and a bible which were abandoned by the gang.
The security force unearthed three FN Rifles, four shotguns, a .32 revolver, two AK 47 magazines, seven FN Rifle magazines, along with 1,159 rounds of matching 7.62 x 39 ammunition.
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| Ammunition and firearms found at gang's location |
One hundred and forty-three rounds of 7.62 x 51 ammunition, 10 rounds of .38 ammunition, one round of .32 ammunition and thirty-six 12 gauge cartridges were also found.
“Ranks also unearthed a diary, which provided incontrovertible evidence of Rondell Rawlins planning and execution of the killings at Lusignan and Bartica, taking vengeance for the death of his sister and a number of telephone numbers,” the release says.
The Guyana Defence and Police Forces have since deployed a number of troops to the area to pursue the gang.
Further, checks done have confirmed that the three FN Rifles found were stolen from the Bartica Police Station during the armed attack on that community on February 17, 2008; and the .32 revolver and two of the shotguns have been identified as belonging to miner Chunilall Babulall whose home at First Avenue, Bartica was attacked and robbed during that incident.
Rondell Rawlins became Guyana’s most wanted after he was released from prison in 2002 and joined the criminal gang which escaped from the Georgetown prison in the same year. Police have been able to kill the members of that gang during several shootouts, with only Rawlins remaining.
Rawlins is accused of a number of murders, including the two massacres in Guyana on January 26 of this year at Lusignan East Coast Demerara which claimed 11 lives including five children, and on February 17 at Bartica where 12 persons including 3 police men were executed.
Currently the local police have upped the reward to $50 million for information leading to the fugitive’s arrest.
He is also deemed the most wanted man in neighbouring Suriname. |
