EX-POLICEMAN and career criminal, Uree Varswyck, who was fatally shot by the police after escaping from the Camp Street Prison in 2017, was reportedly part of the Joint Services team that went into Lindo Creek in the Upper Berbice River in June 2008, Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes has disclosed.

Varswyck, who was also known as Malcolm Gordon, had served and trained in the Tactical Services Unit (TSU) after being enrolled in the Guyana Police Force at age 18. He subsequently resigned from the Force, and years later, was fingered in a number of murders and robberies.

On Wednesday, Attorney Hughes, who was admitted to the local bar in 1988, told the Lindo Creek Commission of Inquiry, led by Justice (retired) Donald Trotman, that based on classified information he has received from one of his clients, Varswyck was part of a Joint Services team that reportedly went into Lindo Creek in June 2008. The Joint Services had been pursuing Rondell “Fine Man” Rawlins and his gang at the time. According to Hughes, his client would only allow him to identify Varswyck, who is now deceased.

“He certainly did say that I could indicate that part of the team was Mr. Varswyck. He also asked me to indicate that another senior rank of the Guyana Police Force, who is still in the Force, was also on that team that went into Lindo Creek,” Hughes told the Commission as he was fielding questions from legal counsel, Patrice Henry.

SAFETY CONCERNS
Hughes’ client was reportedly providing guard at the time. The attorney told the Commission that if his client permits him to release the information in the future, he would, but expressed concern about his safety.

“If that person passes away, it would be on my shoulders and I really am not in a position to provide him with the comfort that I can provide him with that guarantee. I have actually had a whistleblower taken to the police who ended up dead; that was George Bacchus. So I am extremely reluctant to disclose any information on anybody that can identify a serving member of the police force, given my actual experience, because I took Bacchus to the American Embassy, I then took him to the Guyana Police Force and Mr. Bacchus ended up dead” Hughes explained.

Hughes was the attorney representing the interest of the families of the eight miners whose charred remains were discovered at a mining camp at Lindo Creek in the Upper Berbice River (Region 10) on June 21, 2008 by the dredge owner, Leonard Arokium. Arokium’s son and brother were among the eight murdered.

As the attorney representing the interest of the grief-stricken family members, Hughes said in addition to making representation at the levels of the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Defence Force and the Home Affairs Ministry, he had conducted four interviews – with Leonard Arokium, Courtney Wong and Yonette Torres, in addition to a man who had accompanied the police to Christmas Falls in June, 2008. Arokium, Wong and Torres had family members who were among those killed.

Torres, the mother of 17-year-old Nigel Torres who was among the miners murdered, was the last person to see Leonard Arokium’s son, Dax, alive. Dax and her son were working together at the time of their demise.

On June 5, 2008 during a conversation with Dax while at Kwakwani, Yonette Torres had sent a message to her son, pleading with him to be careful because the Joint Services was operating in the area at the time.

With permission from Commissioner Trotman, Hughes read Yonette Torres’ statement he had taken from her shortly after the discovery was made.

A section of her statement read: “Later in the week I saw a police vehicle speeding down the road towards the waterfront. I went to the waterfront and spoke to a mechanic who had come up with the Joint Services. I asked him if he was working with Mr. Arokium and he said ‘yes’. I then asked him if he knew my son and he said ‘yes’. He was a very mannerly and helpful boy and he assured me my son was alright.”

Days after, Yonette Torres reportedly saw another police vehicle heading to the “waterfront at Kwakwani” with the same mechanic inside. According to her statement, the police had frequented the area with drums of “fuel passing in and out”. A helicopter was also reportedly seen on a daily basis flying over the Upper Berbice River area.
But it was a brief conversation with a “Black-clothes” rank that struck her.

BACKDAM BOMBED
“On Father’s Day (June 15), the Joint Services came down the river, i.e., the Black Clothes, and I went and spoke to one of them. I told him I have a son in the backdam and he said, with his face very suspicious, that there was no one in the backdam. He then told me that they had ‘bombed’ the backdam, destroying everything in the backdam,” Hughes said as he read the woman’s sworn statement.

She would then receive a number of phone calls from relatives and friends informing her that several miners were killed at Lindo Creek, her son included. Like Leonard Arokium and Courtney Wong, Yonette Torres in her statement questioned the theory put by the Guyana Police Force at the time that it was the ‘Fine man Gang’ that had carried out the mass murders.

“I don’t feel it was ‘Fine man Gang’ that actually did this because ‘Fine Man’ is said to have cooked, eaten, then tied up, then burn the entire place and there was no smoke that was seen by the helicopter that was constantly flying above,” she posited.

According to Hughes, a man, who had declined to sign the statement out of fear, had placed the police at Christmas Falls on June 7, 2008. The man and another individual were found with small portions of cannabis and were taken to the Christmas Falls. While there, the man reportedly heard gunshots further up the Berbice River and, as night approached, he walked back to a landing in the area. He reportedly arrived at the landing between 20:00hrs and 21:00hrs on the night of June 7, 2008, and was told that several men were killed at Lindo Creek.

“So if you marry that information with that from Ms. Torres who saw Dax Arokium on the 5th June, 2008, it would seem to suggest that this event took place between the 5th and the evening of the 7th,” Hughes posited.
Based on the information gathered, Hughes said that there were two groups of police searching for the criminal gang.