THE Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force have both rejected a headline in the Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday saying “ Army, police officers fingered” in the ongoing probe into an illegal aircraft that was abandoned at Yupukari, Region Nine back in September.The law enforcement agencies did not deny the contents of the article, but pointed out that the headline was misleading and erroneous. Reporting from the findings of a commission of inquiry into the discovery of the illegal plane Guyana Chronicle reported that two members of the joint services are under investigation to determine whether they had any links to the issue. The officers – a deputy superintendent of police and a 2nd lieutenant of the GDF have been removed from their postings in the area and the GDF was asked to set up a Board of Inquiry to probe any possible wrong doing by the officers.

Guyana Chronicle was told that the final report into the investigation concerning the plane cited the GDF officer for abandoning his post when he was asked to stake out the area where the plane was found and also he has been accused of tampering with the scene of the investigation. Regarding the police officer, this newspaper was told that the final report cited him for physically assaulting civilians at the scene who wanted to report the discovery of the plane to authorities.

Residents had found the plane almost one month before an official report was made to authorities, according to the preliminary findings of Brigadier (Ret’d) Edward Collins. According to information reaching this newspaper Collins in his report recommended that the two officers be disciplined and also recommended further that an investigation be conducted into whether they knew of the aircraft operations. Collins also recommended that a more senior GDF officer be posted to command the troops in the Rupununi and that the military should augment its strength in the border region.