Roger Khan misses anticipated deportation

Last Updated on Friday, 6 September 2019, 7:52 by Writer

Convicted Guyanese drug lord, Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan late Thursday night was a no-show in Guyana although he had been due to be deported by the United States (US) to his home-country.

There appeared to be very low-level security at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) that seemed to suggest that Khan was no longer coming Thursday night.

Sources said Khan did not travel to the Miami International Airport from a detention centre located about 30 minutes away from that airport.

It was not immediately clear why he was not put on the American Airlines flight that left shortly after 7 pm Thursday.

No new arrival date was immediately known.

There are concerns in some quarters close to Khan that he might be charged with an indictable offence whenever he arrives here.

The return of Khan will surely spike political interest as Guyana prepares for general elections.

While the opposition People’s Progressive Party has sought to distance itself from Khan who had publicly claimed that he had staved off a coup against the Bharrat Jagdeo administration, the David Granger-led governing coalition has often times linked Khan to an alleged death squad that was responsible for the extra-judicial killings of 400 Guyanese mainly of African descent.

Evidence tendered in a United States court by a United Kingdom company had shown a letter of authorization signed by then Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy for the purchase of sophisticated telephone interception equipment.

One such device and guns had been seized from Khan and several associates at Good Hope, East Coast Demerara.

Khan was virtually hunted out of Guyana, caught in neighbouring Suriname on June 15, 2006 and sent to Trinidad from where he had been collected by United States agents and flown to New York where had been convicted for cocaine trafficking after a plea bargain.

During that period, then Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj had been accused and subsequently cleared by a Commission of Inquiry that he had been at the helm of a state-sponsored death squad that had hunted heavily-armed dangerous criminals who had been ensconced in the East Coast Demerara village of Buxton.

That gang had been spawned by an initial group of five prisoners who had escaped from the Georgetown Prison on February 23, 2002.

For more than six years, numerous people had been kidnapped, robbed and killed. There were three massacres in Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek in 2008. Among those killed was then Agriculture Minister Satyadeow “Sash” Sawh who had reportedly objected to the allocation of a large forestry concession at Kaow Island to Aurelius Inc. During that period, pro-Black activist Ronald Waddell had been gunned down in his car just outside his seaside Subryanville home.

The gang was finally crushed when Rondell “Fineman” Rollins was shot dead by security forces.

During that period more than 30 AK-47 assault rifles and handguns had been stolen from a Guyana Defence Force armory at Base Camp Ayanganna. It is widely believed that many of those guns had ended up in the hands of the Buxton-based gang.