Crime Chief again before DFC, says...
Police working to bring 'phantom' gangs to justice
By Nivedta Kowlessar
Guyana Chronicle
November 13, 2003
CRIME Chief, Leon Trim, yesterday said the Police are working to bring so-called 'phantom gangs' to justice for certain killings to which they are allegedly associated.
Testifying at a public inquiry into the Guyana Police Force, Trim said he did not recognise such groups as 'phantom' but 'criminal', since they are operating outside of the Force.
He was asked about the emergence of 'phantom gangs' and their relation to the discovery of certain dead bodies by the Defence Forces Commission, which is conducting the inquiry at the Supreme Court Law Library in Georgetown.
Trim said if there are illegal groups that are killing people, they are committing crimes
and the Force "will not tolerate" such gangs.
The Police have arrested and questioned several persons with some 'phantom' association, but "have not mustered any evidence to bring them to justice. No binding evidence surfaced in order for us to take those persons to Court," he told the Commission.
"It is a problem we are working on. We are working towards changing the situation with the aim of bringing these people to justice," Trim said, adding that is it not a case where the Police have shelved their probe.
The Assistant Commissioner, Law Enforcement, also addressed the issue of kidnappings during the morning hearing, telling the Commission they are "simple" operations that are "difficult" to prevent. He said the public needs to be sensitised on enticement methods, which include telephone calls advising people to go to "some area" to collect parcels sent by relatives.
Abductions surfaced after five notorious criminals escaped from prison last year February and there have been 19 reported cases since.
Trim said the Police usually advise families of victims not to pay ransoms, as the captives are more likely to be kept alive and evidence would emerge about their location.
Some 10 officers have been trained in Trinidad and Tobago on anti-kidnapping strategies and usually form a "quick task force" to deal with reported incidents. Trim said it is "very important to create intelligence cells throughout the country" and agreed with a suggestion by Commission Chairman, Ian Chang, that information has to come from society, as well.
Trim told the Commission that the Police have established "some degree of control" over violent crimes, an upsurge of which followed the jailbreak, but are still not satisfied.
"We are trying desperately to bring these persons who are still out there to justice," he said, reporting that lawmen are constantly reviewing methods to apprehend and kill hard core criminals creating mayhem in society.
Trim said there is no evidence, but a perception and possibility of a link between the escapees and drug dealers and that they were "used by kingpins" to get to persons they wanted to "eliminate".
There appeared to be some connection with gun 'running' as the criminals were found to be in possession of firearms not legally registered in Guyana, he said.
Asked about the possibility of violent crime re-emerging if the illegal drug trade is not uprooted, Trim said the Police are "not relaxing" but monitoring the situation constantly. "We have our own intelligence network...we have people at work in order to bring these people to justice," he noted.
Trim said there is organised crime with links outside of Guyana and that is why the Police cannot tackle the scourge of drug trafficking in isolation, but through a collective effort involving authorities in other countries.
He reiterated earlier testimony by colleagues to the Commission about the need for more resources for land, sea and air monitoring to stamp out the narcotics trade.
The use of overwhelming force to capture criminals; negative media reports; advice of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and inquests were also discussed yesterday.
Commissioner, David Granger, advised Trim, who has been heading the Criminal Investigations Department since 2001, to read the Simmonds report done on the Police Force some years ago. He cited sections which said it is clear that tools used in Police investigations "originate from the early to mid-20th century" and that forensic capability - a cornerstone of any modern investigation of crime - was "negligible".
Sitting with Appeal Court Judge, Chang and Brigadier (ret'd) Granger, are Senior Counsel Charles Ramson, Attorney-at-Law, Anil Nandlall and Maggie Bierne, a member of the Commission for the Administration of Justice in Northern Ireland.