The whereabouts of the laptop computer taken from three men with a quantity of arms and ammunition at Good Hope Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara in December 2002 is now shrouded in mystery.
The army says that it was turned over to the police, but the police seem not to know of its whereabouts.
The laptop is capable of intercepting and tracing telephone calls made from a landline or a cellular phone and the software is reportedly only sold to governments. At the time, Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj said the use of the instrument did not breach any of the laws of Guyana.
The men - Roger Khan, Sean Benfield and Haroon Yahya - were arrested by a Guyana Defence Force patrol and turned over to the police together with the laptop computer, the arms and ammunition and the vehicle in which the arms were found. A magistrate's court acquitted the three men of all the charges laid against them by the police including possession of unlicensed arms.
A senior army officer assured Stabroek News that the computer was never returned to the army. Stabroek News was unable to contact either Gajraj or outgoing commissioner of police (ag) Floyd McDonald for a comment on the issue. However, a senior police officer told Stabroek News that the computer is not with the police but could not say in whose possession it is now.
The officer said the police were advised to return the vehicle to the men, but that the weapons were unlicensed and were therefore being confiscated by the police, as well as the ammunition and other components.
The vehicle was equipped with bullet-proof windows and its body was also reinforced. Enquiries at the time to the Customs and Trade Administration and the police failed to elicit the identity of the person who imported it.
News of the arrest of the three men, one of whom was an active-duty policeman fuelled suspicion of the existence of a phantom gang, which was responsible for the deaths of a number of persons, some of whom were wanted by the police, and about which the police disclaimed any involvement.