The 60-foot Brazilian cargo vessel intercepted by ranks of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) last Friday, and its seven member crew, were released on Monday by the Customs and Trade Administration as no incriminating evidence was found to warrant charges.
However, the vessel’s captain, Emanuel de Jesus Fransa Bia, paid the GDF Coast Guard $78,000 for fuel received while at New Amsterdam, a GDF press release yesterday stated. The fuel had been used by the captain to sail the vessel to Port Georgetown where it had been impounded and the captain and crew handed over to the police.
The release said that GDF Coast Guard officials had intercepted the Novo Brazilian 111 some five nautical miles off Bush Lot, Corentyne, Berbice in the Atlantic. A previous release had said that the vessel had been intercepted off Bush Lot in the Corentyne River, and a quantity of gold mining equipment including pumps and hoses had been discovered on board. In addition, a manifest and other documents indicating that the vessel had been registered in Brazil and had left that country on May 10 en route to Suriname had been found. Bia had said that his vessel had encountered minor problems and had been unable to reach its destination on time.
The vessel had been sighted by a reconnaissance patrol, the release added.