The battle-ready contingent, currently executing a joint services operation to rid Buxton of criminals and return normalcy to crime-wary Guyana, nabbed Esther Lewis in the troubled East Coast Demerara village late Sunday.

Another woman and a man were also apprehended in Sunday night’s joint services operations.

He is Virgil Brispool, Esther Lewis’ reputed or common-law husband. The other woman taken into custody is Esther Gordon, believed to be the ‘cook’ or one of the cooks for the criminals in Buxton.

The arrests came amid assurances by the joint services that the Army will sustain its collaboration with the police in taking back Buxton and the streets of Guyana from the criminal elements that have wrecking havoc since Mash Day last year, when five dangerous prisoners broke their way out of Camp Street.

They stabbed Troy Williams, a 21-year-old prison officer, to death and shot and permanently injured prison warder and Winfield in the process.

The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) will “not withdraw or reduce its operations tempo” in Buxton until it is convinced that the threats to members of the disciplined services have been removed, and that normalcy and law and order are restored to the violence-prone, problem-plagued East Coast Demerara village, said a senior officer.

Earlier Sunday, one person was shot and he and four others were arrested, in Buxton, as the Army and Police intensified their crime fighting initiative in the criminal haven.

The man injured in the earlier operations is Deon Gordon of 64 Church of God Road, Buxton. He was shot in the left arm and left foot by a GDF patrol around 08:45 hrs Sunday.

The four men also nabbed in one of the earlier operations are Samuel Seaforth, a 26-year-old mechanic of 49 Middle Walk, Buxton; Keno Adams, 23, of Middle Street; Buxton; James Freeman, a 27-year-old mason of 83 Samantha Point, East Bank Demerara; and security guard Vaughn Phillips, 21, of 89 Middle Walk, Buxton.

Several houses were also ‘cordoned and searched’ on Sunday and two motor-cycles recovered, one of which is said to be owned by notorious criminal and wanted man, Shawn Brown.

And yesterday, another Joint Army/Police operation was conducted between 11:30 and 13:15 hrs yesterday in Buxton. The Chronicle has been reliably informed that the area of operation was bordered on the north by the Railway Embankment Road, on the south by Plantain Walk, on the west by Church of God Road, and the east by Company Road.

It is understood that some 22 houses were searched, 17 persons were questioned but no one was arrested during yesterday’s operation.

This newspaper was also informed that two more motorcycles believed to have been stolen were recovered in Buxton during the operation and have been lodged at the Vigilance Police Station.

An Army source told this newspaper yesterday that the GDF is “shocked and find it remarkably strange that the Chairman of the Buxton Regional Democratic Council, Mr. Randolph Blair, would continue to make assertions and false claims about the joint services operations in Buxton.”

According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Blair has been known to selectively target the law enforcement agencies for criticisms and “has never been heard to comment on criminal enterprises in Buxton, even with the newest of evidence of kidnappings and attacks on and murders of law enforcement officers by armed criminals operating from within the limits of the village.”

“It is time for right-thinking and law-abiding Guyanese, both within and outside of Buxton, to form their own opinion about this person and others who claim to represent the interest of Buxtonians,” the Army personnel told the Chronicle.

“It is true that there is a small group of Buxtonians who are alarmed by the presence of the security forces in the village and this is so because of their loyalty and affinity to criminals and their enterprise,” the source reasoned.

The Army source, however, felt that “these new verbal attacks on the joint services seemed designed to cause our withdrawal from Buxton.”

In this regard, the source assured that “the GDF will not withdraw or reduce its operations tempo until we are convinced that the treats to our soldiers and to law enforcement officers generally have been removed.”

The Army personnel pointed out that the “celebratory atmosphere in Buxton” that followed the release of kidnapped victim, De Hoop businessman Mr. Viticharan Singh, last Saturday and “the jubilation of residents at the news of the shooting death of wanted criminal ‘Big Batty Mark’, are irrefutable evidence of popular support for the return of normalcy and law and order to Buxton.”