Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee said recently that all efforts are being made to stop the rampage of sea bandit Kevin ‘Long Hair’ Narine and his cohorts; and he warned that the prison escapee’s “hair may be long, but the long arm of the law will soon catch up with him and cut short his ill-gotten freedom.”
Narine is believed to have masterminded the brutal attack on a number of fishermen last week in the Atlantic Ocean along the Corentyne foreshore in East Berbice, Region Six.
In a statement, Rohee said the fugitive and his cohorts are believed to be hiding out somewhere in Suriname or French Guiana, but local law enforcement officials have contacted their counterparts from the two neighbouring countries.
In a statement, police had said that between 05:30h on Thursday, June 30 and 19:00h on Friday, July 01st, three men armed with shotguns attacked and robbed five captains and 19 crew members of five fishing vessels off the Corentyne foreshore, Berbice; and another two captains and six crew members in Suriname waters, including Surinamese Michael White.
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee
The Guyanese captains whose fishing vessels were attacked are Herman Baldeo,45, of Number 43 Village, Corentyne; Iqbal Bacchus,27, of Rampoor, Corriverton; Vincent Peters,32, of Number 46Village, Corentyne; Rajesh Chunu, 40, of Lancaster village, Corentyne; Ramroop Sukhan,49, of Lusignan, ECD; and Nokhul Manohar, 31, of Number 41 Village, Corentyne.
Police said that, during the robberies, Baldeo was shot to his left shoulder and the perpetrators took away groceries, cell phones, seines, and four outboard engines from the hapless fishermen. The fishermen were subsequently set adrift in their boats, while the armed men escaped in the fishing boat that was captained by the Surinamese Michael White.
Additionally, police said that between 15:00h and 18:00h on Saturday, July 2, all the victims were rescued with the assistance of other fishermen, and Baldeo was admitted to the New Amsterdam Hospital in stable condition.
The fishing vessels that were set adrift have all been recovered, with the exception of Ramroop Sukhan’s boat, the police release said.
In his statement, Rohee said that his ministry upholds the view that piracy within the meaning of the Hijacking and Piracy Act must be tackled on all fronts and at the national and international levels. He said that on the domestic front, law enforcement ranks must be more assertive and aggressive in hunting down and tracking pirates as well as persons harbouring pirates. “There must be no room for indecisiveness or equivocation. The laws are there to be enforced, and the administration has, time and again, signalled its unqualified support to have the said laws enforced.”
Rohee said the small fishing community has a special role to play in rooting out this scourge, since it is they who are the victims of it.
He added that government has worked and continues to work with the law- abiding and hard working fishermen, to assist in providing them with the necessary resources to ensure their physical protection as well as that of their craft and catch.
“It is critical that the larger, more modernised and better equipped “trawler” fishing community provide their unstinted support and solidarity to their disadvantaged and less resourced brothers in the fishing industry.”
From the security perspective, the home affairs minister said, greater information sharing within the fishing community and with the law enforcement agencies is critical to the success of dismantling and capturing the pirates and those who provide them with material and financial support. According to him, it is understood that ‘Long Hair’ and his associates were provided support from persons who were detained by the police on suspicion of harbouring criminals and fugitives from justice. “It is to be regretted that Narine managed to escape from the New Amsterdam Prison.”
Rohee said the report from the McLean Board of Inquiry into the New Amsterdam Prison break has been received, and the recommendations contained therein are being examined by the Home Affairs Ministry.
