– residents say ranks were professional

A MAN was arrested during an early-morning Joint Services operation in Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara on Wednesday.

Commander of ‘C’ Division, Calvin Brutus, told the Guyana Chronicle that the early-morning operation was a routine one in which about 15 houses were searched and a man arrested, when ranks unearthed about one pound of marijuana in a house he was occupying.

The Joint Services operation comprised ranks from both the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and began around 05:00hrs.

One resident, who did not want to be named, told this newspaper that her house was searched by the lawmen, but when they found nothing illegal they left.

The elderly woman said it was about 05:00hrs and she was up doing her regular yoga workout when she realised that the dogs were barking insistently, although she did not think anything was amiss.

However, when she heard a tapping sound at the back of her house she pulled the curtain at a window and saw ranks in her yard. The woman then asked them what they wanted and they said they were “looking for escapees” and asked her to go to the front door, which she opened to facilitate a search.

She added that the ranks conducted themselves in a professional manner and were very courteous as they referred to her as ‘ma’am’ and so on.

The woman said at the time only she and another person were occupying the house, butshe was not afraid. She did,however, ask the ranks how they got into her yard and was told that they jumped the fence although she has dogs.

Other residents of Purple Heart Street, South Vryheid’s Lust, said the operation involved about seven loads of soldiers and police and they were accompanied by a drone and a yellow helicopter.

Villagers related that some of them were not awake, but got up when ranks showed up to conduct a search of their houses early Wednesday morning.

Three prison escapees are yet to be recaptured by law enforcement officers following a fire and break-out at the Camp Street Prison on June 9 and another break-out at the Lusignan Prison, where inmates were housed after the conflagration.

Ex-cop Uree Varswyck, called Malcolm Gordon, was shot and killed in Amelia’s Ward, Linden, earlier this month during a confrontation with Joint Services ranks.

Still at large are Mark Royden Williams, called “Smallie,” on death row for the Bartica massacre and two other murder accused, Cobena ‘OJ’ Stephens and Paul Goriah.