At the time of his death, Inniss was working on the major drugs probe he had been spearheading - the discovery, in May this year, of 1,871 kilogrammes of compressed cannabis sativa (marijuana) the equivalent of 4,116 pounds.

Sources yesterday told the Chronicle that Inniss was so intent on making a breakthrough in the investigations that he had travelled to Jamaica, from where the container had originated.

There is some speculation that it may have been his perceived persistence in finding out who was the person/s behind the drugs shipment that led to his execution, the sources said.

The drugs shipment, which was found behind a false wall in a container, would have fetched a street value of more than $60M.

The container had arrived in the country on May 1 from Jamaica with a consignment of plastic bags and other goods for Wholesale Depot at Eccles, East Bank Demerara.

When the discovery was made, the container was about to be loaded on to a Seafreight Line vessel `HENRICH-J' at John Fernandes Shipping wharf, to be shipped to Miami.

During the initial stages of the investigations several persons were pulled in for questioning by CANU, and a source close to the probe had said considerable inroads were being made, as the investigators sought to find out whether the marijuana came into the country from Jamaica or was packed here.

Inniss was gunned down by four persons who were apparently trailing him in a white car, as he made a routine stop to buy newspapers from a vendor in Buxton, East Coast Demerara, around 06:00 hrs on Saturday.

His assailants, one of whom was dreadlocked, left their car, pumped a volley of shots into his body, killing him on the spot and then escaped.

A female companion with Inniss at the time reportedly escaped with minor injuries.

Police were yesterday continuing investigations into the killing.

Cops were also probing the discovery on Monday of the dead body of wanted fugitive Andrew Douglas on a dam at Farm, East Bank Demerara.

The investigation into Douglas' death is to determine whether he was killed during a shootout in the vicinity of Dury Lane, Campbellville, Georgetown and his fugitive colleagues dumped his body in a hijacked car there, or that on realising that he was seriously wounded, they took him there and "finished him" off, before escaping.

Douglas, one of the five notorious February 23 prison escapees, had before his death on Monday, managed to elude an intensive manhunt spearheaded by the Police Force and the Army for a little more than six months.

In May, dressed in Army camouflage clothes and holding an AK-47 rifle, Douglas declared himself a "freedom fighter" among other things in a video tape which was broadcast on some TV stations.