Police nab mastermind in piracy attacks

Nov 04, 2015 News

The man who was said to be the mastermind in a series of piracy attacks on the Corentyne River and was wanted by the police, has been nabbed and remanded to jail.
The man Aleem Mohamed called “Knights”, 46, a fisherman of Miss Phoebe, Port Mourant, Berbice, was said to be the mastermind in the high seas robbery committed in early October. Three of his colleagues were earlier nabbed and remanded to jail. Mohamed had escaped and was on the run.
The police, acting on intelligence, subsequently nabbed the man and took him into custody.
He appeared in the Whim Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday before Magistrate Carlyn Artiga and was remanded to jail on two counts of robbery under arms.

Aleem Mohamed called Knights

On Friday October 16, last while in company with others and armed with a gun and cutlasses, he robbed boat captain Vishwanauth Ram, of Lot 122 Section ‘A’ No 65 Village, Corentyne, Berbice of a fishing boat ‘Khan 1418’, one 248 HP Yamaha outboard engine, one Guyana Passport, one ID card, One Republic Bank Card, one Blu cellular phone, 35 Snapper, 72 Trout fish and a quantity of fish seine.
The prosecution’s case is that Boat captain, Ram and his crew members Paul Williams, Tajraj Sudial and Vishanand Vandick, were on a fishing trip in the fishing boat, owned by Kaman Rampersaud, called ‘Vinod’, a businessman of No 67 Village, Corentyne, Berbice.
About 13:00 hours while they were some 10 miles offshore in the vicinity of Bush Lot Village they were robbed by the pirates who approached in a small blue boat. The pirates subsequently took the engine from the boat, placed it into the ‘Khan’ before dumping the fishermen into the boat and escaping.
The fishermen were left to drift for several hours before they reached land where they made a report to the Police station.
The stolen boat was eventually abandoned by the pirates after it got stuck. Two of the men were reportedly sent back to retrieve the outboard engine from the boat. However they were intercepted by another group of fishermen while in the act of removing the engine.
The other pirates remanded earlier were Vickanand Chandika 36 of 26 Block 4 Tain Settlement, Corentyne, Khemraj Persaud 23, of the same address and Ram Singh 52 of Cromarty Corentyne Berbice.
Mohamed has been remanded to prison until November 5, when he is expected to return to court on the same day as his cohorts. He is expected to be recharged jointly with the others.