A 36-year-old Brazilian dredge owner is dead following an attack by a gang of about eight men armed with rifles and handguns sometime between Tuesday afternoon and early Wednesday morning at a mining camp located at Akaiwanna, Cuyuni, Region Seven.
According to police, the incident occurred sometime between 17:45 hrs Tuesday and 02:00 hrs Wednesday when the armed men who spoke a foreign language invaded the mining camp, bound the dredge owner, Antonio Da Silva and several of his workers after which they ransacked the camp.
Shortly after, the gang escorted the Brazilian national to his worksite where they removed an undisclosed amount of raw gold.
It was reportedly after they removed the raw gold, they took Da Silva some 500 metres away from the site and shot him several times about his body. Police said Da Silva’s body bore several wounds which have since been suspected to be gunshots.
The man’s body has since been taken to the Memorial Gardens Crematorium and is awaiting a post-mortem. A team of police officers has since been dispatched to the mining camp to investigate the murder.
Earlier this month, ranks of the Joint Services were dispatched to Five Star backdam in the North West District, following a robbery which resulted in a group of armed men suspected to be Venezuelans invading a mining camp at Five Star.
An 18-year-old man, Troy Joseph, of Falls Top mining area, located between Port Kaituma and Matthews Ridge, was shot to the leg.
There have been several reports which indicate that Venezuelan gunmen are committing robberies close to the mining areas at the border. In July this year, three Port Kaituma, North West District miners were killed following a robbery at a mining camp on Venezuela’s side of the border.
The men, Vernon Eudoxie, 63; Cologne Solomon, 23; an ex-policeman; and Samuel Moses, 19, were killed during the incident at a Brazilian-owned mining camp at an area known as “Imatake Backdam” across the Venezuela border.
Another man, Joel Paton, 19, of Supenaam, was injured and was treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).