Mastermind provides details

Sep 17, 2010 News

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The police have arrested multiple suspects in connection with the murder of gold dealers Jainarine Raghubar and Ramdeo Deonarine. Among those in custody is a man identified as the mastermind. He was arrested at a home in Caesar Street, Agricola.
The police got their first real break when a lot of money began to surface during spending sprees. As the police followed the trail a police rank attached to the Tactical Services Unit, who happened to be on annual leave, fell prey to a sting operation because he became greedy.
He reportedly took $1.9 million from a prime suspect, then seized the man’s newly bought car with the demand that he receive a further $5 million. The man duly informed the police and the trap was set, only to be sprung when the suspect deposited a sum of money in the trunk of the car while the TSU rank was sitting at the wheel.
The man who caused the sting has since admitted to being the mastermind. He is now in police custody and is said to be an associate of police ranks.
He later told the investigating ranks that he would treat certain members of the Criminal Investigation Department to alcoholic beverages, especially after he would have made a haul from one robbery or another.
He sought the protection of the police because gunmen targeted him in Agricola on Wednesday night. Some of his accomplices appeared to be dissatisfied with their share of money from the Bartica robbery.
The mastermind, who is known as Satan Ambassador for his knowledge of almost every criminal activity that occurs around the country, once worked as a mechanic for the now dead Raghubar.
He spoke of pawning his cell phone to pay for the hotel room at Bartica after he and his accomplices, one of whom goes by the sobriquet Dog, and who is also in police custody, hatched the plan and decided to travel to Bartica, which they did on September 3, last.
In Bartica, the man said that they checked into a hotel as porkknockers heading to the interior. They also bought three hacksaw blades and a crowbar.
Later that night while a dance was in full swing near to the house where the killings occurred, the men first tried cutting their way into the house but this proved too difficult. They then moved to the back of the building and attempted the same exercise with the same result. One of the accomplices, an ex-soldier, then found that he could have pried open the padlock on the door and so they gained entry to the building.
The mastermind said that they were all in the building when the men returned from a night spot in Bartica. He said that they turned off the lights and waited.
One of the gold dealers had a gun in his hand and the ex-soldier surprised him and succeeded in disarming him and placing the two to lie on the floor.
They tortured the gold dealers until they learnt that the money was upstairs in a suitcase. Meanwhile, they had found other sums of money in other parts of the house. There was $25 million in the suitcase, neatly packaged. The men also removed the jewellery the gold dealers were wearing, a large diamond worth millions of dollars and 100 ounces of raw gold, worth some $24 million.
The mastermind is denying that he killed the two gold dealers, instead, placing the blame on his accomplices, whom he said that he left in the house when he transported the cash to the hotel in a large haversack.
He said that they all left Bartica in a chartered speedboat after telling the operator that they wanted to reach the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri. Once in the city they headed to a house in Lodge where they shared the money and jewellery.
When the police arrested him he was wearing a gold chain he had taken from one of the dead men.
The man spoke of living the high life. He bought two cars, spent four nights at Princess International Hotel where he gambled and lost in the casino. His other hotel bills amounted $289,000 for the four days.
Meanwhile, in Bartica, police acting on information, went to the Byderabo Road home of a relative of the mastermind and recovered a brand new all terrain vehicle (ATV) and a washing machine.
When questioned, the man confessed that he was given the cash by the mastermind.
The police, in a statement issued yesterday, said that on Wednesday they arrested five suspects and seized four motor cars and an all terrain vehicle. They also seized a quantity of electrical appliances from homes in Meadow Brook, La Penitence and Agricola.
The police said that they also recovered the firearm owned by Ricky Ramnarine, the man in whose home the gold dealers were killed.
The cars were believed to have been bought with money taken from the gold dealers. The mastermind was smart to buy two of the cars and pay in installments. Another of the accomplices also bought two cars, one of which he presented to his mother. A sixth suspect turned himself in yesterday, accompanied by his lawyer.

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