Latest update June 13th, 2026 12:40 AM
DEA finds trawler off Grenada coast
The US Drug Enforcement Agency has located the ill-fated Island Princess off the coast of Grenada.
Reports indicate that the DEA operatives have been tracking the Guyana cargo boat and are still to board it.
Kaieteur News understands that the vessel was deserted. A statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the vessel was spotted yesterday by the DEA operatives.
The statement indicated that the vessel will be brought back to Guyana.
“In this regard, the Government of Guyana has authorised the State Powers controlling the appropriate Maritime Task Force to enter Guyana’s territorial waters in control of the apprehended vessel and to have the said vessel moored at Port Georgetown under the supervision and control of the competent Guyanese Law Enforcement Authorities.”
Contacted yesterday, Errol Prince, the owner of the vessel expressed relief that the Island Princess had been located. But he said that his main hope was that the investigators would locate the persons who brutally murdered the crew.
“Lives were lost on this vessel. I would like to get down to the bottom of it, and I hope that the DEA picks up more clues.
“Why did they (the killers) go to the lengths to degut these people? That is what I’m most interested in.
“The families need answers. I need answers.”
Kaieteur News understands that the Island Princess, which is a trawler that was converted to a cargo vessel, had enough fuel to reach Trinidad.
“The driving tanks had about 600 to 800 gallons of fuel,” a maritime source said.
“They had enough fuel to reach Trinidad, and they had to be communicating with somebody.”
The source expressed the view that the persons who took the vessel to Grenada either ran out of fuel of were instructed by their accomplices to abandon the vessel.
“Someone in Guyana had to take the killers on board. They (the investigators) have to look at the Guyana angle.”
The Island Princess, with its four-member crew, disappeared about three weeks ago while it was reportedly near Parika.
The bodies of its captain, Titus Buckley Nascimento, 46, and the engineer, 25-year-old Mahendra Singh, were found at Zeelandia, Wakenaam, and on the Hamburg Island seashore respectively.
A third body, identified as that of 23-year-old Ryan Chin, was found near the Queenstown, Essequibo foreshore. All the bodies were degutted and bore bullet wounds.
Still missing is 46-year-old crewman Rickford Bannister.
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